Puzzles To Remember: November 2016

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, November 2, 2016

Hailey Richman is named one of 10 Hasbro Community Action Heroes

By Max Wallack
Puzzles to Remember

Our 9 year old Assistant Director, Hailey Richman, has been named one of 10 Hasbro Community Action Heroes.

Over the past year, Hailey has helped PuzzlesToRemember place over 10,000 puzzles. She often takes puzzles into nursing facilities and spends time there interacting with the residents and doing puzzles with them.

She also encourages other young people to participate, involving entire girl scout troops to interact with senior citizens.

Also, Hailey founded Kid Caregivers, a support group for kids who are assisting their families in caring for a loved one with dementia. Hailey advises kids as far away as Russia, Germany and Africa about how to interact with family members who have dementia. She maintains a website, www.kidcaregivers.com, where kids can write to her asking for advice on how to handle the caregiving situations they are in.

Hailey has begun giving presentations at schools, explaining Alzheimer's disease to children. She is always amazed how many kids come up to her afterwards, describing their caregiving roles at home and asking for advice.

Hailey is also the youngest Purple Angel Ambassador. She is also busily at work constructing an invention that will, helpfully, prevent many falls among the elderly with dementia.

Hailey has appeared on 2 radio shows: Lori La Bay’s show: Alzheimer’s Speaks, and Dreamvisions 7 Radio Network. She discussed the impact of children helping to care for a loved one with Alzheimer’ disease.

What does Hailey do in her spare time? She is a member of a children's choir in New York and she collects new pajamas to provide to children in shelters.

Hailey will be honored at a national toy fair this winter. I am very glad she is receiving this well-deserved and prestigious award!

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. He is currently a student at Harvard Medical School. 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