Kaelin Thacker lives in Charlestown, Indiana and is the Team Captain for the Louisville Walk to End Alzheimer’s team Sarah Rose Hall Memorial. She has been a part of the Walk since 2012 and her team has raised tens of thousands of dollars making them one of our top friends and family teams!
What types of fundraising does your team do?
We do one big yearly event in August. Our event is a community event and we have a band, over two hundred raffle items, silent auction items, bouncy houses, and so much more.
Why do you support the Association? How has Alzheimer’s disease personally affected you?
Our grandmother, Sarah Rose Hall, was diagnosed in 2010 with Alzheimer’s. As always, she faced this journey with the same dignity and grace she exhibited daily until it took her life in December of 2011. We wanted to do something to always remember our grandmother as well as do our part to find a cure for this disease.
What impact do you feel your participation in the Walk has on the community?
So many people have told us how much they look forward to our event each year and our event continues to grow. We try to reach out to new businesses and more friends and contacts to come and enjoy the day with us. We utilized Facebook this year more than we have in the past and I believe it contributed to our success this year. This year we had over 260 donations to raffle off!
Why would you encourage others to support the Walk?
We know personally how devastating this disease is and we would love to see a cure for it in our lifetime.
Is there anything else you would like us to include or know about you or your team?
My sister, Kristin Pickerell, and my cousin, Lauren Stutesman, and I have loved working on our event every year. Our goal has always been to raise more money than the last year and each year we have accomplished that. We work on our event year round – starting the week after our event each year. Our first year we raised a little over $6,000 and this year we have raised over $16,000!
