This weekend, Ames will be remembering those who are living without their memory.

For the first time ever, an Alzheimer’s Memory Walk will be held in Ames on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. at Brookside Park’s Maple Shelter.

Georgia Grant, of the Story County Alzheimer’s Association, said the Memory Walk is a good way for community members to show their support for the four million Americans afflicted with the disease.

For a $15 donation, participants can walk along one of three routes and receive a T-shirt and breakfast. Grant said there will be mapped 5K and 10K routes and a route around the fenced perimeter for handicapped participants.

Increasing awareness of Alzheimer’s is a major goal of the walk, Grant said.

“Alzheimer’s is a dreadful disease, and we don’t have any medical answer for it,” Grant said. “Therefore, the answers you have to get are social help.”

Grant said the Memory Walk will raise money for the Alzheimer’s Association, which provides services to people who want to offer social help to loved ones with Alzheimer’s.

“It can really tear up a family to lose a person who’s still there,” Grant said.

She said the Alzheimer’s Association provides services such as a toll-free help line, a 24-hour emergency beeper service, in-home safety assessments, care coordination, police/sheriff and emergency squad training, in-service training for professional home visits and a lending library.

“People normally don’t know what the Alzheimer’s Association is until they need it,” Grant said.

To publicized the walk, Grant said she put up a number of posters around the community and sent out brochures. She said she has received a lot of help from the members of Iowa State’s Sigma Kappa sorority.

“[Alzheimer’s] is our national philanthropy,” said Beth Pagel, Sigma Kappa foundation chairwoman and junior in elementary education. “We started doing it in 1989, and since then we’ve granted half a million dollars to Alzheimer’s and gerontology research.”

Pagel said she and philanthropy chairwoman Dacia Heck, along with more than 60 other members of the sorority, have been working hard to recruit student walkers.

“We’re going to help the day of the walk, and we’ve been hanging up posters around campus,” Pagel said.

Pagel said Sigma Kappa participates in Alzheimer’s awareness activities year-round, including the sales of lollipop bouquets for Valentine’s Day.

Pagel said she encourages students to get involved with the Memory Walk.

“It’s really a personal thing,” she said. “It’s about letting people know that you remember those who have the disease.”

Grant said participants may sign up the day of the walk or pre-register with the Alzheimer’s Association. Donations also are welcomed. The Alzheimer’s Association can be reached by calling (515) 733-6038.