AWARE Affair Chairs and Grant Recipients Announced

Center for Brain Health Hosts AWARE’s Spring Meeting as they announce the 2018-2019 Grant Recipients and AWARE Affair Gala Chairs

Fighting Alzheimer’s Disease Since 1989

(Featured photo: Sarah Bearden Smith, 2019 AWARE Affair chair; Sharon Ballew, President, AWARE; Ginny Bond Fein, 2019 AWARE Affair chair.)*

The AWARE Spring Membership meeting and luncheon was hosted by The Center for Brain Health and featured a very interesting presentation introduced by Carol Stabler and presented by Leeanne Young, PhD, executive director for the Brain Performance Institute speaking on Brain Health and Awareness and Lifestyle Factors to Reduce Alzheimer’s Onset.

Before that presentation, Stacey Angel, Membership Chairman, welcomed the crowd and introduced a feature film highlighting special programs and research updates funded by AWARE. She gave heartfelt thanks and congratulations to Jolie Humphrey and Josey Kennington, chairs of the 2018 AWARE Affair Celebrate the Moments gala last April for their hard work and dedication over the past year and a very special thank you to Venise Stuart, outgoing president, for serving as president these past two years.

Stacey announced the Grant Committee had voted on the grant recipients for the 2018-2019 year and those are:

• Texas Winds Musical Outreach: Support for the Concerts for Seniors program, which provides two concerts by professional musicians in each of 95 nursing homes and adult day care facilities serving individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias as well as the economically disadvantaged.
• Juliette Fowler Communities: Support for training, implementation, and certification of the “I’m Still Here” program, a national model that provides a person-centered approach to caring for persons with Alzheimer’s through social engagement, new learning experiences, community service, and volunteerism.  The program ensures that unique skills and interests are incorporated into each patient’s day so that experiences are fulfilling.
• C.C. Young: Funds to support a board-certified music therapist who will engage with the Memory Care residents for 30 minutes to one hour a day, every day, seven days a week, while becoming familiar with each resident and selecting music on an individual basis according to their preferences.
• Dallas Museum of Art: Support for teaching honorariums, supplies, and staffing for Meaningful Moments, a program designed to provide participants with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and their families or caregivers with ways to engage in art providing a continuing cultural opportunity to everyone regardless of their ability.
• The Senior Source:       Support for the Senior Companions program matching trained volunteers with individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and their families needing assistance with meals, errands, and light housekeeping providing caregivers with respite and/or time to work outside the home.
• Center for Brain Health: Support for the second year of Studying Sleep Architecture in Early Stage Alzheimer’s Disease to better understand how sleep impacts cognitive health in aging individuals and what role it may play in cognitive impairment.  Results from this three year study could motivate the formulation of better, more multifunctional interventions to slow or halt the progression of cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease.       
• Dallas Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association: Funds to support the hire of the Dallas Chapter’s Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator.  This individual will develop a Hispanic Outreach manual and program called “Get the Facts” directly dedicated to meeting the needs of the underserved and often mono-lingual Dallas Hispanic community.  The program will use existing partnerships with Telemundo and Univision television stations to help raise awareness and drive attendance to education and support group opportunities.
• Jewish Family Service: Support for the salary of a three-quarter-time licensed Clinical Social Worker to provide in-home mental health counseling, care management, and daily living support services to 50 older adults with Alzheimer’s disease and 20 family members and caregivers allowing patients to remain independent and living in their own home.   
• Center for Vital Longevity: Support for the salary of Chris Foster, Ph.D, currently working under Dr. Karen Rodrigue, enabling him to continue the second year of a three-year study of biomarker-based risk factors for healthy aging from data collected by the lab from a sample of 200 adults ranging in age from 20-94 years old who are recruited from the Dallas community.
• Baylor Healthcare System: Salary support for the Baylor AT&T Memory Center to provide a trained care and support specialist onsite at the Baylor AT&T Memory Center.  By placing this valuable service at the point of care, patients and their families in early diagnosis can receive disease education, caregiver skill training and support groups, elder law and financial planning, and a 24/7 helpline allowing physicians to focus on the medical issues surrounding the disease.

Myrna D. Schlegel AWARE Scholarship Fund awardees are Emilia Jasper, who is pursuing her Graduate Master Degree in Family Health Nursing at TWU and Genova Segura, who is working toward her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at TWU.

Members of the new board were announced: Sharon Ballew, President; Jolie Humphrey, President-Elect; Sue John, Treasurer; Misty Keown, Membership; Carol Stabler, Secretary; Stacey Angel, Grant Review.

The grants are partially funded with proceeds from the annual fundraiser, AWARE Affair Celebrate the Moments.  The 2019 gala chairs are Ginny Bond Fein and Sarah Bearden Smith. The event begins with a cocktail reception and silent auction followed by a three-course dinner. Guests will also enjoy special feature presentations, a spirited live auction, and dancing with music spanning the decades. A fabulous and fun evening!

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.”

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.
* 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 Dallas Foundation, a 501(c)3 publicly supported charity, is the fiscal sponsor of AWARE.

* Photos by Dana Driensky

(Sharon Adams, Adams Communications Public Relations, is honored to represent AWARE.)