Walking for More Than Awareness: How Hudson Valley Families and Care Teams Can Help Fight Alzheimer's Together

Walk to End Alzheimer's is the Alzheimer's Association's annual, community-based fundraiser held in more than 600 locations nationwide, including a Dutchess/Ulster chapter event at Walkway Over the Hudson in the Highland/Poughkeepsie area. Funds raised support Alzheimer's care, support programs, and research. Participation ranges from joining an existing team, forming a family or workplace team, or simply walking and donating, registration is free, with fundraising encouraged but not required.

What Walk to End Alzheimer's Actually Funds

According to the Alzheimer's Association, funds raised through Walk to End Alzheimer's support the organization's care and support programs as well as its research efforts, it's described as the world's largest event of its kind, held annually in hundreds of communities across the country.

The Hudson Valley Walk: Dutchess/Ulster at Walkway Over the Hudson

The Dutchess/Ulster chapter's Walk takes place at Walkway Over the Hudson, spanning the river between Highland and Poughkeepsie, a genuinely fitting, visible setting for a community event built around bringing people together over a shared cause.

Why Community Participation Matters Beyond the Dollars Raised

Beyond fundraising, the Walk creates visible, public community around a disease that so often isolates the families living with it. For many participants, walking alongside neighbors, coworkers, and strangers who understand exactly why they're there is meaningful in a way that's separate from, though connected to, the money raised.

How Workplace and Community Teams Get Involved

Businesses and community organizations can register a team, recruit walkers and donors, and participate alongside individual and family teams, a structure that both broadens fundraising reach and builds visible local support for the cause.

How to Register and What to Expect on Walk Day

Registration happens through the Alzheimer's Association's official Walk site, where participants can join an existing team, start a new one, or register as an individual walker. Walk day itself typically combines the walk route with community programming and recognition of participants' efforts.

Why Local Care Organizations Show Up

For more than two decades, Angels on Call Homecare has fielded a company team at the Dutchess/Ulster Walk to End Alzheimer's, a small part of a much larger community effort that shows up every fall at Walkway Over the Hudson. Showing up as an organization, alongside the families a homecare agency serves every day, is one small but genuine way to participate in a cause the whole community has a stake in.