It has been about seven months since Gloria Crockett’s uncle died from Alzheimer’s disease. When the disease had taken over, she said, he could no longer enjoy his favorite pastime: birdwatching.  Crockett and her family were heartbroken.  “What was devastating was to watch him not remember his favorite birds outside of the windows, not remember his family members, and to really just not understand what was going on,” Crockett said.  The Alzheimer’s Association, where Crockett works as a regional vice president and executive director, held its annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s fundraising event on Saturday morning at Bridgeport Park.   Participants walked 3 miles to raise money and awareness for those affected by the neurological disorder. This year, participants from the Santa Clarita Valley Walk to End Alzheimer’s were able to raise $132,600, according to the Alzheimer’s Association website.  Attendees also had the chance to enter raffles and watch live performances from “Rat Pack Ricky” Medlin Jr., students from the Star Dance Center and Victory Martial Arts.   There was also a competition in which a dog named Mo was crowned as this year’s mascot for the Santa Clarita Walk to End Alzheimer’s.  The event featured a “Promise Garden,” where attendees could place a colorful flower pinwheel representing who they were there to support.   Orange flowers represented those there to support the cause, purple represented those who have lost someone either to Alzheimer’s or dementia, yellow represented those currently supporting or caring for someone with the disease, and blue represented those currently living with Alzheimer’s or a similar disease.  Alzheimer’s progressively changes the tissues in the brain and slowly destroys connections to different regions in the brain, according to UCLA Health. This often leads to aspiration pneumonia because of difficulty in swallowing, caused by the disease.  Crockett said that, after her uncle’s death, she found herself wanting to help more people whose lives, like hers, were impacted by Alzheimer’s.  “I joined the Alzheimer’s Association for not only my uncle, but the people and generations to come that may be impacted by this disease,” Crockett said.  Like Crockett, actress Nancy Daly also lost family members to Alzheimer’s, which had pushed her to start her own organization, Actors and Artists Unite to End Alzheimer’s, in honor of her mother.   She said that she’s been participating in the Alzheimer’s Association’s walk for nearly 14 years.  “I’ve lost now easily four members of my family to the effects of Alzheimer’s and dementia, but I think it’s wonderful about these [events] is we all come together to walk now so that when we find a cure, we can dance,” Daly said.   More information about the Alzheimer’s Association and about the Walk to End Alzheimer’s can be found at act.alz.org.    The post Local residents Walk to End Alzheimer’s  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.