On your mark ... get set .. walk!

Alzheimer’s group hits the track for fundraiser

October 15, 2006

By MEGAN VARNER
Index-Journal senior staff writer

For 50 years, Alice Brown took care of her husband, Clayton.
She helped him raise three children, cooked meals for the family, kept up with the laundry, straightened the house and even mowed the lawn when Clayton needed a hand.
But about five years ago, the roles in the Brown house began changing, and Clayton Brown has become a caregiver for Alice as she struggles with what her husband calls a “dreadful disease” — Alzheimer’s.
Clayton Brown, a Wesley Commons resident, shared his wife’s story with hundreds of people who turned out Saturday at the Greenwood Family YMCA for the Lakelands Memory Walk benefiting the Alzheimer’s Association.
“For me, my caregiver duties started about five years ago when Alice began forgetting things and sometimes searched for words to finish a sentence,” Clayton Brown said to the crowd. “It’s now becoming my turn to take care of her.”
The Browns, along with their son Jim, were among the first to make a lap around the track at the walk, which raised more than $18,500 for the Upstate South Carolina Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, said Christel Parnell, coordinator for the Greenwood area office.
The walk is the largest fundraiser of the year for the local chapter, and the proceeds, which stay in the local service area, will fund a number of Alzheimer’s programs and services, Parnell said. Those services include a 24-hour helpline, more than 30 support groups across the Upstate, educational conferences, Safe Return programs, physician partnering programs and Maintain Your Brain seminars. The funds also support research into the disease that affects an estimated 4.5 million Americans.
“Alzheimer’s disease is very progressive and, unfortunately, it has a lot of stages and it never gets better — it only gets worse,” Parnell said. “But a positive thing is, if you get a diagnosis soon enough, you can get on medicine that can slow that progression down.”

GROUPS FROM LANDER University, the Pilot Club of Greenwood and a host of area retirement centers and Alzheimer’s support agencies formed teams to make laps around the YMCA’s track, while volunteers, such as Abbeville resident Ruth Bacon, worked at booths lining the infield. Bacon said she volunteered to help with the event partly because of her own personal experience with the disease.
Her grandmother and two aunts are Alzheimer’s victims.
“(Events such as the Memory Walk) make people aware of the problem. Alzheimer’s is terribly difficult on families, and it touches so many more people than most realize,” Bacon said. “There is no way to explain how difficult it is.”
Walkers Robin Davenport, of Greenwood, and her mother Patricia Cunningham, of Charleston, also had a personal reason for attending the walk. Cunningham’s mother, Mattie Little, is suffering from the disease, and the women said they wanted to show their support for Little and the others who are dealing with Alzheimer’s.
Cunningham said her mother stayed with her for about two years, before the progressive brain disease reached a point where Little had to be placed in a nursing home.
“It’s really hard because it’s a person that you’ve seen all your life. They were able to communicate and do things for themselves, but they are no longer able to do that,” Cunningham said, adding that the most painful part is watching a loved one lose their memories. “She can look at you and say, ‘I’m glad to see you come,’ but she doesn’t know who you are. To be her daughter or granddaughter, and she doesn’t know who we are, that is really hard.”
Little was one of the dozens of names of Alzheimer’s patients read aloud by Parnell during a special tribute ceremony, and some people chose to put their loved ones’ names on multi-colored memorial and honorary flags that flew during the walk.
Walk participant Shirlon Robinson, who attends Active Day Center in Greenwood, raised close to $2,000 for the event, Parnell said, making her one of the walk’s top fundraisers. Robinson said she called family and friends to ask for donations, collecting the sum in only one week.
“I basically stayed on the phone,” Robinson said, laughing.
At first she had a goal of $150, but within a few days she realized her total was going to soar past that amount.
“I think I will do (the walk) next year, and hopefully I’ll raise twice as much money next year,” Robinson said.

PILOT CLUB OF Greenwood member Carol Scales said the country’s aging population is going to make the need for Alzheimer’s research even greater within the coming years. The Pilot Club, she said, is a group of professional women whose main interests include brain disorders.
“We are most concerned that funding for Alzheimer’s research has not been determined yet ... and we are very interested in getting the legislators in South Carolina to take an active role in supporting research for Alzheimer’s disease,” Scales said.
Until research finds a cure, Scales said, Alzheimer’s patients have only a few medications that can slow its progression.
And for the family members of those with Alzheimer’s, patience is the key, Clayton Brown said. The prayer and understanding from others in the community, including the support from the Alzheimer’s Association, are sources of hope during the difficult journey of the disease, he added.
“Patience is a key word, along with my remembering how frightening it must be for (my wife) to live with this unexplainable, scary and mysterious thing that is happening to her,” Clayton Brown told the group. “Another thing that helps me cope with the situation is my faith in prayer.
“I often make what might be a selfish prayer, and that is for God to help keep me healthy and patient long enough to finish my duties to Alice here on Earth.”

Health care a big topic at candidate rally

Democrats at American Legion post also discuss Iraq, jobs, education

October 15, 2006

By MEGAN VARNER
Index-Journal senior staff writer

Greenwood County voters had an opportunity Saturday to meet with a few of the candidates they’ll see on the ballot this November during a Democratic Party rally at the American Legion Post 224 in Greenwood.
The Democratic candidates, in races ranging from local seats to state and U.S. offices, spoke to about 75 area residents at the rally, giving the constituents a glimpse of what each would like to accomplish if elected to serve and what they thought were the major issues facing South Carolina’s residents today.
“This gives the candidates a chance to put their message before the people again, and to get their message out there so people can understand where they are coming from,” said Elaine Gentry, chairwoman of the Greenwood County Democratic Party, adding that the event was open to the “everyday, regular people” in the community.
Gubernatorial candidate Tommy Moore, a state senator who will face Republican incumbent Gov. Mark Sanford in the upcoming election, said the Democratic campaign has been going very well in the past few weeks, gaining more and more momentum as the election nears.
“We can win this thing. We’ve got the issues, we’ve got everything on our side,” Moore told the audience. “Folks are ready to see change in this state.”Moore said unemployment continues to rise in the state even as Sanford’s political ads claim that more than 100,000 jobs have been created while he has been in office. Moore said that, if elected, employment, health care and education would be the priorities of his office.
“We are going to make sure that public education is not going to be the whipping post any longer. We need to make sure that health care is affordable and accessible,” Moore said. “The biggest plan we’ve got is a willingness to work with everyone ... because we believe in one South Carolina and we believe in bringing people together.”
Gentry said Moore has a “common sense” appeal that is creating quite a following among many voters.
“To me, it’s way past time to get back to common-sense values. I’d like to see candidates that want to lift our state up,” she said. “That’s one of the things I like about Moore. He seems to have a lot of common sense, and that’s a very admirable quality.”
Lee Ballenger, opponent of Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, also told the audience that the rising cost of health care is a problem facing many residents right now, and it was one area he promised to address if elected to serve in the Third Congressional District. Another area of concern, he added, is the war in Iraq, and Ballenger said he thought the troops needed to be brought home rather than fight in a war that has “no justification.”
“I don’t know if other people understand how much of a crisis we are in,” Ballenger, a Greenwood native, said. “Nobody is going to do a better job of rebuilding this community, of rebuilding Greenwood and of rebuilding the 10 counties in this congressional district than Lee Ballenger. I promise you that right here today.”
Adjutant general candidate Glenn Lindman, who is running against Republican incumbent Stan Spears, said fiscal problems and drops in the numbers of soldiers are the main issues that led him to run for the office. Lindman said the state’s National Guard armories are plagued with a host of problems that go unrepaired for years, leaving the taxpayers with a hefty repair bill.
“If you look down at his (Spears’) annual report, we need $60 million just to bring the armories back up to standards,” Lindman said. “As taxpayers, we all should be screaming.”
Lindman also said he believes the position of adjutant general should be appointed by the governor rather than elected. “Politics have no place inside the National Guard. Politics have no place inside the military, period,” he said.
Incumbent state Rep. Anne Parks, who faces Republican opponent Kevin Scharf, pledged to continue her support of public education if elected to serve another term.
“I still have a large interest in the public education system. I know it’s not perfect, but I think we can change that,” Parks said, adding that the state’s low test scores and education rankings can be improved with the right amount of work. “I think we can improve what we’ve got and not take away from what we’ve got.”
Parks said she plans to continue pushing for health care reform, adding that positive gains have already been made in some areas, such as Medicare. She said rising health care costs are going to be on the minds of many residents as the costs of prescription drugs rise.
“We have a lot of people in this state who work full time and cannot afford health insurance,” she told the crowd.
“That is something that needs to be looked at and it is something that needs to be changed.”
Local candidates were also featured at the event, and Greenwood County Councilwoman Edith Childs, who is running unopposed for the District 1 seat, said her goals are to continue the work she has done in her district. Her first plan, she said, is to finish getting water lines placed in the Troy area and making sure residents there have access to the lines.
Another goal is to resolve the issue of trains blocking the exit in the Promised Land community — a goal that is very close to being “a done deal,” Childs said, smiling.
Soil and Water Commission nonpartisan candidate Marion Paul Gentry gave the attendants a brief speech about his new delve into politics, and Greenwood School District 50 Seat 1 candidate LeVerne Fuller, also running for a nonpartisan seat, introduced herself to the crowd.
“I really want to see changes with some of the schools,” Fuller said. “I want to make sure that all of the schools are up to par so that children will feel comfortable learning and have all the technology they need at the schools.”

Opinion

Bloggers take advantage of unwitting ‘believers’

October 15, 2006

There’s a new source of “information” in the elections of 2006 that could influence the voting public to some extent and even determine the outcome in some cases ..... and in some cases could be totally without merit ..... or truth.
The source of this is what’s known these days as “bloggers.” These are people who have, in effect, commandeered the Internet as their personal publishing empire. They use it to send out all kinds of politically exploitative material - true or not - to anyone who is naive or curious enough to tap into their electronic propagandizing. It’s common in South Carolina.

BE WARY OF SUCH MATERIAL. Anyone can log on to the Internet and can write anything. It may or may not be the gospel. Because it’s on the ‘Net, though, people tend to take it for the truth. It’s not.
Political shysters know this, too, and they take advantage of this tendency of people to believe what they read on the Internet.
The best policy for voters is not to believe what any blogger says about any candidate or any issue. Some write about candidates working to undermine public education, or, maybe about some product. Too often they are absurd, and totally without substance. But, then, that’s an example of the kind of misinformation that bloggers use the Internet to distribute. In fact, the Internet is such a perfect instrument for spreading rumors it suits politics just fine.

IF BLOGGERS HAD COME ALONG before there was an Internet there’s a good chance they would have invented it to serve their often ulterior and egotistic purposes.
The Internet is, to be sure, a valuable tool. Its uses seem limitless. Most people get the full benefit from it, too, by using it properly. It’s just that some bloggers exploit it to take advantage of unwitting “believers.” They are, in effect, electronic confidence artists. Unfortunately, too many are involved in political pursuits of one form or another, especially during political seasons, like now, when they keep their computers humming.
Just remember. What they say may be true. Then, again, it may not be. Be sure by checking another source. Don’t believe it just because it’s there.

Obituaries

Henry Elmore

CHARLOTTE — Henry Elmore, 77, died Thursday, October 12, 2006, at Carolina Medical Center.
The family is at the home of Betty E. Lewis, 513 Seneca St., Calhoun Falls, and at the home of William Elmore, 127 Seneca St., Calhoun Falls.
Friendly Funeral Home, Calhoun Falls, is in charge.