Iowa State’s Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA) did not exist last year.

It didn’t exist until August of 2016, when Hannah Chute, president of Iowa State’s chapter of AFA, founded the chapter in honor of her grandfather, who passed away three years ago.

Iowa State’s AFA chapter is affiliated with the AFA in New York, which fights to find a cure for Alzheimer’s. Wednesday afternoon, the two groups partnered to hold Iowa State’s first Raise Your Voice for Care event.

In an open house from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Cardinal Room, Oak Room and Great Hall of the Memorial Union featured panels and events occurring simultaneously to educate and raise awareness.

Raise Your Voice for Care was designed to give information to community members about a multitude of things, including personal testimonies about caregiving for someone with Alzheimer’s and careers, such as geriatrics, to help those with the disease. There were also memory screenings and virtual dementia tours.

Chute, with her own story of losing someone she loved to early-onset Alzheimer’s, has already grown the group to 20, most of whom also have a background with the disease.

Daniel Galinovskiy is one of those 20. Describing awareness for the disease as a good cause, Galinovskiy has a few family friends who have been affected by Alzheimer’s.

Since joining at the beginning of the fall semester, he and his group have worked hard to gain ground as an organization on campus and create awareness.

“I think [awareness] is important because it’s definitely a condition that can be detected early,” Galivnoskiy said, “so it’s important to just make sure that if you notice something […] to catch it first and catch those symptoms early.”

Galinovskiy said the Raise Your Voice for Care event is just the first step for people to learn about Alzheimer’s, such as what symptoms of the disease are and some ways to help with the symptoms of the disease.

Chute was originally approached by AFA headquarters to start an on-campus chapter and found that, out of the 850-plus organizations on campus, there were none dedicated to Alzheimer’s.

“The main goal of our organization is just to be advocates and hold events to let people know that they’re not alone and to offer them resources,” Chute said. “Like today, we have memory screenings going on and we have support groups people can contact.”

She hopes that one day, their voices will be heard to the point of an increase in funding and working harder toward a cure for Alzheimer’s.