Puzzles To Remember: Puzzles For Alzheimer's Patients Delivered to Eight Nursing Facilities Today

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.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Puzzles For Alzheimer's Patients Delivered to Eight Nursing Facilities Today

By Max Wallack
Puzzles to Remember

From time to time, I enjoy hand delivering puzzles to nursing facilities. Since many of the recently donated puzzles were high quality and quite heavy, I decided to save shipping costs. Today, I hand delivered these puzzles to 8 different facilities around Boston.

Several activity directors were very happy, telling me that their residents love to do puzzles. Many were worried that there would be a cost and relieved when I assured them that the puzzles were free.

Some residents who noticed the puzzles wanted to begin working on them right away. It was great to see their enthusiasm. I was happy to have given them something to look forward to.

It brought me right back to the feelings I had three years ago when I first began distributing puzzles.

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.