Holding promise flowers and in purple shirts, walkers and dancers made their way down Lawton Drive in Kenai on Saturday at the Third Annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s.
Held for the third year on the Kenai Peninsula, and for the second at the Challenger Learning Center of Alaska in Kenai, the Walk to End Alzheimer’s is an annual awareness event and fundraiser put on by the Alzheimer’s Association. Dinosaur rides and a performance by Diamond Dance Project took place in front of the center, and a row of tables were set up to connect people with resources or recruit them for the association’s advocacy work.
Vibrant pinwheel flowers were placed on the lawn and along a pathway that stretched from Lawton Drive to the Kenai Spur Highway and back. Many of the walkers who set out Saturday morning carried a flower of their own.
Each color of flower represents the different connections its bearer has to Alzheimer’s disease. Blue is held by people with Alzheimer’s, purple is carried by a person who’s lost someone to Alzheimer’s, yellow is carried by someone who provides care for someone living with Alzheimer’s, and orange is carried by someone who broadly supports the association’s stated mission of seeking a world without Alzheimer’s.
Linzey White, a board member of the Alzheimer’s Association of Alaska, said the annual walk also raises funds for research and advocacy and to support people experiencing Alzheimer’s and their caregivers.
“It is a disease that ruins people financially,” White said. “It hurts their families.”
White said her mother’s experience with Alzheimer’s has caused significant changes in her own life and that of her father.
The association advocates not just for people with Alzheimer’s but also for caregivers, she said, because those people put in significant time, effort and money “making sure that their loved one is safe, and clean, and supported.” White pointed to local classes and a support hotline available for caregivers.
Information provided by the association says that more than 8,000 Alaskans have Alzheimer’s, and that their caregivers provide 39 million unpaid hours of personal care.
For more information, including classes and support for caregivers, visit alz.org or find “Alzheimer’s Association Alaska” on Facebook.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
Staff from Aspen Creek Senior Living stand for a photo during the Third Annual Kenai Peninsula Walk to End Alzheimer’s on North Tinker Lane in Kenai, Alaska, on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
A crowd moves along the sidewalk during the Third Annual Kenai Peninsula Walk to End Alzheimer’s on Lawton Drive in Kenai, Alaska, on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Promise flowers fill the lawn at the Third Annual Kenai Peninsula Walk to End Alzheimer’s at the Challenger Learning Center of Alaska in Kenai, Alaska, on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
A crowd moves along the sidewalk during the Third Annual Kenai Peninsula Walk to End Alzheimer’s on Lawton Drive in Kenai, Alaska, on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
