Puzzles To Remember: PuzzlesToRemember Continues Its Mission to Provide Puzzles for Facilities Caring for Alzheimer’s Patients

Puzzles To Remember

PUZZLES TO REMEMBER is a youth led 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to enhancing the lives of individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias through jigsaw puzzles, cognitive engagement, and social connection. Led by Executive Director Hailey Richman, Puzzles To Remember has distributed more than 236,000 puzzles valued at over $2 million to more than 5,000 memory care communities, nursing homes, veterans facilities, senior centers, and other organizations across all 50 states and 16 countries. Our programs have benefited more than one million people while diverting approximately 148 tons of puzzles from landfills through donation and reuse. Puzzles To Remember also promotes intergenerational connection through Puzzle Time, which brings young people together with individuals living with dementia for shared puzzle solving, conversation, and companionship. Our mission is to provide engaging and purposeful activities that promote connection, participation, and joy while enhancing the quality of life of those affected by dementia. Donate Puzzles If you have puzzles you would like to donate, please contact us at Puzzles2Remember@gmail.com. We will help identify a location where your puzzles can benefit individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Donation acknowledgment letters are available upon request.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

PuzzlesToRemember Continues Its Mission to Provide Puzzles for Facilities Caring for Alzheimer’s Patients

By Max Wallack
Puzzles to Remember

By now, PuzzlesToRemember has provided close to 5,000 puzzles to facilities located throughout all 50 states, as well as parts of Canada and Mexico.

Originally, I personally delivered all puzzles myself to each facility. Then, I began applying for small grants to help with the cost of shipping puzzles. Several corporations, including Stop and Shop, Harvard Pilgrim Health, and DoSomething (American Express) all provided small grants for this purpose.

After some time, I also took on the role of a “puzzle broker”. People and companies called me with puzzles to donate. I then researched facilities in their areas, and I arranged for them to deliver the puzzles to Alzheimer’s facilities near where they lived. I derived great satisfaction from this role. Everyone was happy: surplus puzzles found their way to where they were really used and needed.

A few weeks ago, I decided to, once again, deliver puzzles personally. I guess I was missing the satisfying personal interaction that often takes place when I deliver puzzles. I set out, with a car full of puzzles, to Western Massachusetts. I had a list of about 6 facilities that I planned to deliver puzzles to.

After delivering to the first three, I kept noticing additional facilities along the route. For instance, there was a veteran’s care facility that I had been unaware of. I stopped, and I delivered puzzles there. Then, I happened to pass the Applewood facility in Amherst MA. It was a large facility, and I decided to bring the remaining puzzles there.

The staff at Applewood was very welcoming. I spent about 20 minutes there. It was obviously a good facility, quite clean, with a caring staff. It let me relive the feeling of seeing how much good the puzzles can do. By surprise, a few days after I returned home, I received a thank you note and a check for $25 from Applewood. I had never even suggested that they make any donation, but their generosity will provide shipping funds for puzzles to other facilities.

Max Wallack is a student at Boston University Academy. His great grandmother, Gertrude, suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Max is the founder of PUZZLES TO REMEMBER. PTR is a project that provides puzzles to nursing homes and veterans institutions that care for Alzheimer's and dementia patients.