By Kris Nordstrom McBride The 5 OClock Phlock Coconut Telegr June 28, 2024

Purple was the color of the evening last Friday, as The Five O’Clock Phlock Parrot Head Club hosted its first dine and donate event to support two important fundraising campaigns for The Alzheimer’s Association (TAA) – The Longest Day and The Walk To End Alzheimer’s in The Woodlands. Before we tell you about the party, here’s some background and history. 

One in three seniors will die with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia; 6 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s and that number is expected to rise to 14 million by 2060. Over 11 million Americans provide unpaid care for a loved one in this battle. The statistics are staggering. TAA is a highly ranked charity, with more than 78% of its revenues providing direct funding for the care, support, research, awareness and advocacy activities for Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. And it’s working – for the first time in history, there are now treatments that can change the course of Alzheimer’s.  

President Ronald Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 1994. The term “The Long Goodbye” became a well known phrase associated with the disease after his wife Nancy discussed the devastating emotions of watching a loved one fade away. President Reagan lived for ten years after his diagnosis.        

The Alzheimer’s Association created the “Longest Day” Fundraising Campaign to “outshine the darkness” of The Long Goodbye on the day with the most light, the summer solstice, June 21st. Everything from bake sales to exercise classes are held with proceeds going to the cause. Creativity reins! 

In 1994, Jimmy Buffett’s dad, James Delaney (JD) Buffett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. His Long Goodbye lasted until 2003 when he passed away at the age of 83. Parrot Heads have always been a tight nit group, and when JD lost his life, we felt we had lost a family member too. Many clubs were (and still are) populated with baby boomers and our chapters began to see this devastating disease striking within our ranks. And so Parrot Heads in Paradise (PHIP), our governing body, formed a National Walk Team, committing to an annual minimum donation of $100,000.00 to The Walk To End Alzheimer’s. Teams were formed in clubs all around the country. PHIP Teams have raised over 1 million dollars to date, earning our organization TAA’s National Team Longevity Award. 2024 will be 5OCP’s 4th year participating in The Woodlands Walk. We’ve been on the local walk’s leader board each year and ranked in the top ten PHC Teams nationwide for both 2022 and 2023. We’re committed to doing that again in 2024. Each person on our team has a story to tell about their connection to Alzheimer’s. 

Our club decided to create one special night to fundraise for both these efforts. We hosted   dinner in The Glass Room on June 21st at the always wonderful Amore Fine Dining on Highway 105. A capacity crowd enjoyed food and libations of their choice, with a portion of the proceeds donated by the restaurant to The Longest Day. The 5OCP Walk Team provided items for a small silent auction and raffle, with those proceeds being donated to The Walk To End Alzheimer’s in The Woodlands on October 26th of this year. 

The Glass Room is a beautiful room all by itself. We added layers of purple fabric and table runners, votives of luminescent purple mercury glass, and an elegant balloon arch in multiple shades of purple. There was a photo booth, including the  flowers of the Alzheimer’s Walk for guests to “pick” – orange in support of the cause, yellow for caregivers, blue for those living with Alzheimer’s and purple, the most abundant, for those who have lost someone. Guests arrived in beautiful shades of the color of royalty too. It was a visually stunning evening where we celebrated those we’ve loved and lost and the strides being made for treatment and a cure. We hope that in our lifetime, we will see the first survivor of Alzheimer’s. 

The 5OCP owes a huge debt of gratitude to Amore owners Alfred Limani and Vjosa Berisha and their staff, songbird Lisa Lynette for the beautiful music, party decorator Dulce Dunn, and our club members who helped all evening. A special round of applause to our Alzheimer’s Walk Team who work so hard for the cause and donated the raffle and auction items. And to each person who attended – including our friends from Rotary and April Sound – we appreciate your support so very much. You Rock! 

Kris is President of The 5 O’Clock Phlock Parrot Head Club, the PHC of the Lake Conroe/Woodlands area. Email  KrisCommService@aol.com or text 713 825-0141. Follow the club on Facebook at www.facebook.com/5OClockPhlock. For more info, visit the website www.5oclockphlock.com. 

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