Puzzles To Remember: The Power of 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.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

The Power of Puzzles

By Max Wallack
Puzzles to Remember
I want to share the email below that I received yesterday from a woman in Florida who wishes to pass on her puzzles to others through PuzzlesToRemember. (I think we have found a good home for these puzzles.)

My mom is suffering from Alzheimer's.

We noticed changes in her for a while but she and my dad wouldn't let us help. Mom had a bad fall and wound up in the hospital with dehydration and a UTI. When she was sent to a rehab center she was so shaken and not responding to anything. I spoke to doctors/OTs/PTs and aides. She wasn't responsive or active at all. One day I decided to go to the dollar store and as I shopped for puzzles - the simplest we're 10-20 piece Disney puzzles for children 2-5 - I sat down and cried.

I took a puzzle to mom when I went to the rehab that day and she yelled at me. "I'm not doing this" "what is this?" And she tossed it to the side. Is shook my head but at least I tried - at this point nothing was working.

The next day when I got to the rehab center, just before I entered the room I heard mom mumbling to herself. I stood outside and listened. I glanced in to see her in her chair leaning over her food tray table putting the puzzle pieces together. I smiled.....and cried again. I went inside and although the pieces weren't all in the right places I told her it was amazing and I was so happy. We talked a bit and then I asked if I could work on the puzzle and we'd do it together. I had always loved puzzles as a kid and worked had on them together back then.

Mom is home now and we have progressed - more difficult puzzles, beading, puzzles with word or number associations. Her caregivers love them. I read about your amazing organization - Now it's time to pass along some of the puzzles.

Please let me know how I can do this. Thank you

Max Wallack is a student at Boston University and a Research Intern in the Molecular Psychiatry and Aging Laboratory in the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at Boston University School of Medicine. 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.