Puzzles To Remember: An 8 Year Old Uses the Springbok PuzzlesToRemember to Bring Joy to 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.

Thursday, July 9, 2015

An 8 Year Old Uses the Springbok PuzzlesToRemember to Bring Joy to Alzheimer's Patients

By Max Wallack

Puzzles to Remember

I wanted to share two wonderful photographs that I received today.

The first is an 8 year old visiting her grandmother in a nursing facility. She is helping feed her grandmother. You can just see the trust and affection between them.

Then, the girl spent time with other residents in the nursing facility. One resident had been having a particularly bad day. The girl offered to do puzzles with her. Pretty soon, the day was turned around and smiles abounded. Even the patient's physician (on the left) was obviously delighted at the result.

Max Wallack graduated from Boston University and worked as 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.