Walk to End Alzheimer’s returns to Big Spring Community is invited to join the cause on Oct. 9 at 9 a.m.

Alzheimer's Disease is a terrible condition which slowly steals the memory, motivation and ability to communicate.

Next weekend, you have an opportunity to help fight back against the disease by walking and raising money for Alzehimer's research.

The event is the Big Spring Community Walk, the local incarnation of the Walk to End Alzheimer's, sponsored by the Alzheimer's Association. Big Spring's event is scheduled Saturday, Oct. 9, at the new pavilion on Whipkey Road. The event opens at 9 a.m. The opening ceremony will take place about 9:45 a.m., while the walk is scheduled to start at 10 a.m.

“We are walking to end Alzheimer's, exactly that,” said event spokesperson Julie Gray. “This is a community walk that is benefitting the Permian Basin Walk to End Alzheimer's.

We provide care and support to those in Big Spring, so Big Spring has put together a community walk. The official Permian Basin walk is happening here in Midland on Oct. 16, and we're walking in Big Spring the week before.”

Gray said that participants will be given flowers to carry during the walk to represent their individual connection to Alzheimer's Disease.

“Our flowers have a lot of fight in them,” she said. “Each color represents someone in the fight. For example, when you carry a purple flower, you've lost someone to the disease. Orange, you support a vision with no Alzheimers or dementia. Yellow, you're a caregiver, and blue, you're living with the disease. So we have a small ceremony that talks about the significance of each one of our flowers, and it's really just a