This is a printer friendly version of an article from www.thedailytimes.com
To print this article open the file menu and choose Print.
Article published Jun 30, 2009 Middle schooler fundraising to fight Alzheimer's
By Melanie Tucker of The Daily Times Staff
Five hours on a Saturday morning that could have been spent sleeping in or at the community pool instead were used by eighth-grader Mary Baker to work outdoors on a humid day.
She and 10-year-old brother David are part of the team called Mary's Angels, who raise money and awareness for Alzheimer's disease each year by holding fundraisers like this Saturday yard sale in Maryville. When it was all over, Mary, team captain, had sold enough toys, books, clothes, furniture and other household items to raise more than $200 for her team. She is not done, and will continue her efforts as part of the Alzheimer's Association's annual Memory Walk that will be held here in Blount County in October.
This is Mary's fourth year to be in the Memory Walk, and grandmother Linda Baker also participates. Mary has been the top youth fundraiser for the local Memory Walk for three years in a row and said she is doing all she can to make it four. She said her inspiration for being a part of the effort is her great-grandmother, who died from Alzheimer's.All of the items for her yard sale were donated by various people in the community, Mary said. She decided not to place price tags on any of the sale items, asking instead for people to simply make a donation. The strategy has worked well, she said.
Mary plans to hold another yard sale sometimes in August and she usually sets up a table at the Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson dealership to ask for more donations.
This eighth-grader at Union Grove Middle School said the community has always been generous whenever she asks for donations for this cause. There are a lot of people out there who have been affected by it, she said.
And Mary, her brothers, their grandmother and others like them are continuing on in hopes that one day a cure will be found. One yard sale and one step at a time.