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A Week on the Appalachian for Alzheimer’s

The hike is now over. If you would like to support the cause, you can still donate here. All updates from Phil's journey can be viewed here.

Our Lovely Pledgers:

A message from Phil:

In 2016, my father-in-law passed away at the age of 92 after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for several years. He was an amazing man; a WWII P-51 Fighter Pilot, an incredible father, college athlete and football coach that helped thousands of students. He is in the Delaware Hall of Fame as one of the athletes of the century. The toll it took on him and his family was something he never would have wanted anyone to endure.

In 2018, my sister was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s at age 58. Early onset occurs when an individual is diagnosed before age 65. I don’t want to invade her privacy with a lot of detail, but it is significantly impacting her life and her family. It would be nice to be able to do something that could possibly help her and others facing this situation in the future.

In January, a friend invited me to join him for a week hiking the Appalachian Trail in Georgia. After a careful evaluation and self-assessment, I have decided to attempt to hike between 75 - 85 miles in seven days at the end of March over significant mountains. I am not sure how it is going to turn out, but I have been seriously training for the last month. I was quite disappointed to discover that there are no Marriott hotels or restaurants on the trail, and I question the wisdom of spending a week sleeping on the ground in a tent in the mountains with temperatures between 10 and 60 degrees with three other somewhat old men. While walking with my dog and wearing a 30 pound backpack in a snow storm in the Poconos last weekend, a car stopped and asked if I was OK and if I needed help. While the answer to both questions is debatable, I thanked him for asking and said I did not require any assistance.

On one of my training walks, I remembered a charity event I did as a kid, swimming laps to raise money. People would pledge a nickel or whatever they were comfortable with per lap and then pay for each lap that was swam during the event. I remember one of my father’s golf buddies pledged a dollar a lap and was quite surprised when I swam a few hundred laps. That was a lot of money in the late 70s but he laughed and concluded he was glad to contribute.

To get to the point, I plan to walk between 75 and 85 miles during March 19 – 26th, 2021, on the Appalachian Trail, and would like to try to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Association while doing this hike. Age, physical condition, weather, and tall North Georgia mountains will be working against me, not to mention the sobering fact that beer is too heavy to carry in my pack. I would like to invite you to observe the journey and help me raise money for the Azheimer’s Association, which supports current and future patients of Alzheimer’s deal with and hopefully find a cure for this debilitating and fatal disease.

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of Dementia. Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death in the US and cases are expected to triple in the next 40 years. More than five million people in the United States have Alzheimer’s. One in ten people age 65 and older has Alzheimer’s disease.

I invite you to pledge a fixed amount or a per mile amount to the Alzheimer’s Association. Each day during the trip, I will try to send an interesting email about the progress of the trip with a picture or two. My son Drew will help me distribute a daily email and will also include information about Alzheimer’s to increase awareness about the disease. There may be gaps in cell coverage so the email/post may not come every day.

If you would like to hear about the trip or pledge some amount, please sign up below and we will add you to the distribution. If you think someone else would be interested in this endeavor, please feel free to share this with them. When the trip is over, I will share with you the total amount pledged through this undertaking. I am surprised and amazed to report my first donor pledged $3 per mile.

Thanks for reading.

You may no longer sign up, as Phil's journey has reached its end. If you would like to support the cause, you can still donate here. All of the daily updates from the trip can be viewed here.

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