As you probably know, Greg and were Honorary Co-Chairs of this year’s Charlotte Memory Walk, located at Symphony Park near SouthPark Mall. The Park has a large, lovely lawn — and a wonderful band shell, where Greg and I spoke on the stage to some 2,000 participants. Other speakers included a friend of ours who has Alzheimer’s Disease, and Former Mayor Pat McCrory, who made a touching talk about how the illness has affected his family.
We enjoyed welcoming everyone and thanked them for their support. Greg had been teasing me about being ‘queen’ of the walk and said I needed to practice my ‘royal wave.’ Apparently he told the Western N.C. Alzheimer’s Association staff about his teasing. Unfortunately, the staff took action by making us wear special crowns to designate ‘Her Majesty’ and ‘His Majesty’ — and they forced us to wear them on stage and during the walk. They did make for a fun, but ‘dorky’ photo opportunity!
Meanwhile, the weather was fabulous – and so were the participants. Grandparents walked. Parents walked. Young children walked, donating their allowance to the cause. Even dogs walked! Most of our family was in town to participate in the Walk, and my sister in Pittsburgh supported us long-distance.
While the Walk is for a serious cause, the event was fun. There was plenty of entertainment, including singing, dancing, face-painting, viewing old model cars, buying raffle tickets, bidding on paintings by an Alzheimer’s patient and more. At the end of the day, the Walk was extremely successful. We don’t have a final tally yet, but the overall Walk goal was $150,000, and we exceeded that amount by several thousand dollars the day of the Walk…and money is still coming in!
Greg and I feel very blessed to have been so involved in helping the Walk succeed. Together, all of us were able to raise awareness, provide care and support for families affected by the illness, and generate donations to help us end Alzheimer’s Disease.
Most of all, however, it was a beautiful day – AND, a beautiful day to remember!
Hi,
If I read your blog notes correctly, you’re the daughter of Cortland Anderson, who was director of OU’s School of Jounalism in the early 1980s? I’m an OU Journalism grad, class of 84, and I was lucky enough to know your father — what a great guy! I thought about him this week while I was reading some history of the Washington Post, and them my mind floated back to my college days.
I had gone one year to OU, then had to sit out a few years to earn enough money to go back to school (my family was quite poor). When I returned in 81, Cortland had just taken his post there, as I recall. And although I had a counselor, your father became my de facto journalism counselor throughout my last 3 years in school. I always felt comfortable just stopping in his office on my way to or from a class, and he always took the time to chat. I called him Cortland from the moment I met him (I remember my jouarnlism buddies kdding me about that…”how dare you refer to him by his first name!?”), but he never seemed to mind.
And I’ll never forget that he took me aside late one quarter and told me that while my journalistic instincts were strong, my basic writing and grammar really needed work, and I promptly enrolled in an English course for the next quarter to help bring my skills up to par. He was , of course, absolutely correct.
I’ve been editing magazines now since 1985, and I have tried to model how I work with my staffs like your father treated me from the moment I met him — with respect and with professionalism, and with honesty.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Greg Sharpless
I am Cortland’s daughter. How did you know him?
Laura: I’m so glad to learn that the walk exceeded the goal. Hurrah!
And, congratulations! I know you and Greg worked hard for this success.
It was also good to read that weather cooperated.
Today is Thanksgiving and I wanted you to know how glad I am that you are my friend and an inspiration to me.
To Laura Mercer:
Peace be on you. You do not know me but I know you suffer from early stage Alzheimer’s disease. Thanks to God, you still have many of your mental faculties such as the ability to contemplate, wonder, think, and reason. God alone has the power to give and take any human ability. I write to you to invite you to worship God as He truly deserves to be worshiped, without partners and without attributing undivine qualities to him. I ask you to embrace Islam and declare that God is One and that Jesus, the son of Mary, peace be upon him, is the messenger of God and created by God through Divine Word. And also declare that Muhammad, peace be upon him is His servant and final messenger of God. Those who submit to God will truly be saved from punishment in this life and the next. I hope you sincerely consider my invitation, Goodbye.