AWARE Announces 2017-2018 Grant Recipients. Mark your calendars for Friday, April 13, 2018 for the annual gala AWARE Affair Celebrate the Moments

(Featured image: Myrna D. Schlegel AWARE Scholarship Fund award recipients Nora Drutz-Rogney, Baylor University and Lindsey Ross, TCU; AWARE president Venise Stuart.) *

AWARE president Venise Stuart has announced the grant recipients for the 2017 – 2018 year. Applications were submitted from nonprofit organizations located in Dallas and Collin County that are working on the front lines in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.

The final selections have been made and the recipients are:

• Baylor Health Care System Foundation – Support for the salary of a Ph.D. Neuropsychology Intern for Baylor AT&T Memory Center.
• Center for BrainHealth – Discovery Group – Support for the Discovery Group, a program designed to help individuals and families affected by Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias focus on preserving abilities and tapping strengths to promote meaningful engagement and slow the progression of the disease.
• Dallas Museum of Art – Memory Moments – Support for teaching honorariums, supplies, and staffing for Memory Moments, a program designed to provide participants with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias ways to engage in art that are revitalizing and gratifying.
• Jewish Family Service – Support for the salary of a Clinical Social Worker to provide independent living services to adults with Alzheimer’s and related dementias and their families/caregivers.
• Juliette Fowler Communities – Support for group and individual therapy sessions with a Certified Music Therapist for memory care residents, and to help purchase additional instruments and therapeutic tools.
• NorthPark Presbyterian Church – Casa de Vida – Support the Casa de Vida program, which gives relief to families/caregivers by providing one-on-one care to individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias at the church for programs involving art, music, games, and lunch one day per week from 9:30 until 1:30.
• Texas Winds Musical Outreach – Support for two concerts by professional musicians in 87 nursing homes and adult daycare facilities that serve individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
• Presbyterian Communities & Services Foundation – Broad Strokes – Support for the Broad Strokes program at Grace Presbyterian Village that provides music and art therapy to residents with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
• The Senior Source – Senior Companions – Support for the Senior Companion Program matching volunteers with individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and their families needing assistance with meals, light housekeeping, and companionship.
• UT Southwestern Medical Center – Support to advance Dr. Roger Rosenberg’s research and clinical trials on a DNA Vaccine to clear amyloid plaques in the brain to prevent or slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

The announcements were made at the AWARE Annual Meeting at the Royal Oaks Country Club which featured author Dayna Steele as the speaker. She shared her journey as a caregiver from her book “Surviving Alzheimer’s with Friends, Facebook and a Really Big Glass of Wine,” a Caregiver’s Guide to Love, Humor, Patience, Confusion, Anger and Wine. Her sense of humor and down-to-earth honesty brought both applause and tears from the crowd.

Venise congratulated AWARE Affair Celebrate the Moments 2017 gala chairs Angela Fontana and Andy Szuwalski, Penny Reid and Tom Nolan, on a most successful event.

Stacey Angel, treasurer, congratulated the Myrna D. Schlegel AWARE Scholarship Fund Awardees Nora Drutz-Rogney who is attending Baylor University and Lindsay Ross, who is attending Texas Christian University.

AWARE is dedicated to fighting Alzheimer’s disease, and its mission is to provide funding and support to nonprofit organizations that are working on the front lines to fight this disease in Dallas and the North Texas region. Through the Dallas Foundation’s Field of Interest grant program, applications to the AWARE fund were received from nonprofit organizations located in Dallas and Collin County that are working on the front lines in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. Through the grant application review process, AWARE selects the most outstanding groups that provide services, programs, education, and resources to those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, their families and caregivers, and to organizations doing valuable research to find a prevention and cure.

AWARE is proud to support nonprofit organizations that share its mission and are also dedicated to fighting Alzheimer’s disease. “Together we will make a difference.”

The grants are partially funded with proceeds from the annual fundraiser, AWARE Affair Celebrate the Moments, happening on Friday, April 13, 2018. More details to follow. The event features a silent and live auction, three course dinner and dancing.

AWARE membership is open to the public. AWARE provides its members important opportunities to participate in a variety of ways to become engaged in the all-important fight to end Alzheimer’s disease.

* Network – Members participate in a network of individuals, many of whom have a personal experience with Alzheimer’s disease through a family member, friend, medical or other professionals in the field.

* Education – Members learn the latest information about the causes, treatment, and research on Alzheimer’s through meetings, field trips, and speakers.

* Resources – Members work collaboratively to share information and best practices in the compassionate care of loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease.

The Dallas Foundation, a 501(c)3 publicly supported charity, is the fiscal sponsor of AWARE. * Donations – Members know that grant recipients of the AWARE fund have been professionally vetted by The Dallas Foundation to ensure that money invested in our local community is leveraged for the best possible results in the fight to end Alzheimer’s disease.

For more information on AWARE Affair Celebrate the Moments, the grants and membership in the AWARE organization, visit the website at www.awaredallas.org

The 2017-2018 board members are: Venise N. Stuart, President; Carol Stabler, Secretary; Sue John, Treasurer; Stacey Angel, Membership; Myrna Schlegel, Myrna D. Schlegel AWARE Scholarship Fund; Janet Broyles, Past President.  Founders are Ruth Sharp Altshuler, Cyndy Hudgins, Nancy Nelson, Evelyn Ponder, Billie Leigh Rippey and Anita Sampels.

* Photos by Chris Waits.

(Sharon Adams, Adams Communications Public Relations, is honored to represent AWARE and its special events.)