Puzzles To Remember: An Unusual Request for Alzheimer's Puzzles

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.

Monday, February 6, 2012

An Unusual Request for Alzheimer's Puzzles

By Max Wallack
Puzzles to Remember

Last week, I received an unusual request for Alzheimer’s puzzles.

I was contacted by a man named Robert. Robert used to live in New York City, but he currently lives in Quindio, Columbia, South America, where he teaches English as a Second Language.

Robert also works together with a group of local psychologists who do a lot of work with Alzheimer’s patients. Together, they are working on a program to integrate English as a Second Language as a therapy for Alzheimer’s patients.

Robert says, “Second language study has been proven to offset some symptoms.”

Robert is also aware of a “cluster of patients that live in the remote area of Antioquia, . . . a mountainous region North of where I live. Some of those families are heading to the states to seek treatment for the malady. It has been in the families in this area for a number of generations already.”

Robert asked if I had any resources to send to these people in Colombia.

PuzzlesToRemember and Springbok will be sending puzzles to the Institucion El Paisa Gringo (translates as American Institution for Parents) in Colombia, South America. We hope the patients enjoy the puzzles, and we wish we could do more.

Alzheimer’s Stalks a Colombian Family

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.