The rays of sunshine were out longer than usual during the summer solstice in late June, and so were 63 Charter Senior Living communities across the nation as they raised money for Alzheimer’s research as part of the Alzheimer’s Association’s The Longest Day initiative.
Amber Dahle, Charter’s national director of memory care, was thrilled with last year’s results but set the bar even higher for this year’s edition.
“If we just set our sights high, we can push the envelope a little bit,” Dahle said. “Then I noticed there’s a lot of senior living companies that do participate. It’s an important cause we make sure that we give a lot of attention to — why we’re doing it and the motivation [behind it.]”
According to Dahle, Charter shattered its previous record of $102,125 set in 2023 and raised just under $160,000 this year. Charter communities raised money through a variety of fundraising methods, from car washes to gumbo cookouts to playing a senior living classic, bingo, but with a new “bougie” twist.
“We want to do things that are more innovative typically than [bingo], but I think it’s also a cool nod to seniors in a way,” Dahle said. “The ‘bougie’ piece is the designer handbag prize, and we’ve had a lot of families, partners and vendors donate those bougie bags to us for our cause. Of course, the residents, families, anybody who attends bingo — they absolutely love it.”
Although there was lots of fun, Dahle emphasized that it’s important to spread awareness of Alzheimer’s in the community at large. Misconceptions about the disease run rampant, she said, adding that she sees the fundraiser as an opportunity to set the record straight.
“Some of the [mis]understanding that floats out there is, ‘You’re just senile,’ or ‘That happens when you get old,’” Dahle said. “I think that we have a lot of beliefs that we hold about people with this disease that are untrue. So I think the unique part of it is unraveling all of those beliefs that we’re holding in society about this group and trying to break it apart and educate people who need to be educated about it.”
Raising more than $150,000 is a massive accomplishment in itself, but Dahle said she was most impressed with the collective action taken by the participating Charter communities. After all, it takes a village to raise $160,000.
“When we hit right under the $150,000 [mark], I was reflecting in my own home and thinking, ‘If we can get 65 communities and community teams to focus like they did on this, there’s comfort in knowing that they’re putting that exact type of energy into taking care of the people,” Dahle said. “That was just very impactful for me.”
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