ALZFighters Assemble! KNSI Radiothon Crushes Goal, Donating Over $14,000 to Fight Alzheimer’s Disease

(KNSI) — Thanks to you, the inaugural KNSI ALZFighters Radiothon brought in over $14,000 to the Minnesota and North Dakota chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.

A combination of listener support and matching donations from area businesses made the effort a smashing success, bringing in significantly more than the $10,000 goal we had hoped for. The money raised will stay local, helping fund community outreach, education efforts and cutting-edge research.

Senior Community Engagement Manager Jenny Theis was in the studio during the final hour, talking about the Alzheimer’s Association’s “Healthy Living Healthy Brains” class. She says the fight against the disease begins well before a diagnosis.

“These tips that I’m going to give you are the same tips that you probably hear for cancer or heart disease. Number one: eating healthy, cutting out ultra-processed foods. Number two: staying active. Number three: Be social.”

Theis says all of those tips stay true once you get sick. Other recommendations include stimulation, whether that is through reading, crossword puzzles, or some other brain game.

Tinamarie Simmonds lost her husband, Jack, to Alzheimer’s earlier this year. He suffered from an early-onset case. When Jack became sick, his youngest child was only seven.

Simmonds says Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease. “There’s executive reasoning, executive order, and Jack was affected with those right out of the gate. And then your language [goes]. And then [it’s]physical.”

Two new treatments, one that has already been approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and another that will be reviewed in the coming months, are helping to halt the disease. Funds raised Thursday will ensure more breakthrough medicines in the future.

The radiothon will return even bigger and better in December 2024. Money can still be raised through the end of the month. Thursday’s total equaled $14,065.

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