Different type of walk, same mission

Tending the Promise Garden in Port Washington’s Veterans Park, Carol Wessels stood next to a sign that helped explain why she volunteers to help organize the annual Alzheimer’s Association’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Ozaukee County, which was held Saturday, albeit in a different fashion because of the pandemic. Wessels’ mother died of complications of Alzheimer’s disease in 2015. Instead of the typical event that brings hundreds of people to the Port park before they walk through the city, this year’s walk featured an online pep rally and opening ceremony and encouraged people to walk in their neighborhoods as well as drive by the Promise Garden. The event yielded more than $70,000 to raise awareness of the disease and fund research. Wessels, whose Mequon law firm Wessels & Liebau specializes in elder law and is a sponsor of the walk, said the pandemic has been particularly devastating for people who suffer from Alzheimer’s and other memory loss diseases because many of them live in long-term care facilities that have experienced deadly Covid-19 outbreaks.                                              Photo by Sam Arendt