Page 60 - Abilene Living

It is diagnosed in America every seventy seconds. More than 5.4 million in the United States are stricken with it; about 7,000 of those are in the Big Country. It’s Alzheimer’s disease. That’s more than a group of college friends could bear before deciding to do something about the insidious cruelty of the disease. Jeanie McDonald and her friends came up with an idea to throw an annual bash to beneft area victims of the sickness, as well as donate to research. Steppin’ Out for Memories was born.

“This is our ffth year to do this,” McDonald said. “I have a group of college friends. We all went to Abilene Christian - we started college together in ’66. We’re the Chicks of ’66. We’ve always been close. We’ve traveled together and had fun. We were on a trip to Chicago about six years ago and we decided we wanted to do something to give back after having all these good times.” Since six of the eight members of the group were dealing directly with Alzheimer’s, the choice of charities seemed obvious.

This year’s ffth annual Steppin’ Out for Memories was held the second Saturday in April at Abilene Country Club with proceeds from ticket sales and auctions of donated prizes benefting the Alzheimer’s Association North Central Texas Chapter. Libby Connally, regional director for the organization, said the money and awareness raised by the event is critical in keeping programs up and running.