US$5,000 grant offered to help projects documenting the Alzheimer’s crisis, all in memory of Bob and Diane

 

 

If your loved ones live to the ripe old age of 85 in America today, there's a frightening one-in-three chance that they'll be afflicted with Alzheimer's Disease. Worldwide, some 44-48 million people suffer from Alzheimer's and dementia, a number that's only likely to rise as baby boomers continue to enter their twilight years. These statistics should be shocking, but as mere words on a computer screen they lack the impact they deserve. That's where a new grant from the Bob and Diane Fund comes in.

Bob and Diane Martin, the couple memorialized by the grant, were high-school sweethearts who, after close to 50 years of marriage, passed away within three months of each other in 2011, just five years after Diane was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. Stories like those of Bob and Diane are all too common, and it's stories like theirs -- not ungraspable numbers -- which can do the most to help to persuade people to support the search for a cure for this cruel and dehumanizing disease.

 

Bob and Diane Martin were among the many, many people affected by Alzheimer's Disease. Through a grant in their names, your photo, video or multimedia project could help raise the attention and money needed to find a much-needed cure for the disease, and help bring the suffering to an end.

And it's precisely these stories that the Bob and Diane Fund is hoping to give the attention they so richly deserve, courtesy of a US$5,000 grant towards the completion of a photo, video or multimedia project documenting the impact of Alzheimer's and dementia. If you've already completed your project on the topic, then the grant isn't for you, although we're sure Bob and Diane would be the first to thank you if they could.

But if you're working on a photo, video or multimedia project about Alzheimer's and you need help clearing those final hurdles to publication or exhibition, well... what are you waiting for? Submit your project now thru October 15th, and you'll be entered into consideration for the grant. The winning submission will be announced in November 2016, and instructions for how to enter can be found on the Bob and Diane Fund's website. (Briefly, though, you'll want to prepare your resume / CV, a 500-750 word proposal, and some examples of your project in its current state.)

And whether or not you receive the grant, we here at Imaging Resource would like to take a moment to thank you for helping to shine a light on Alzheimer's. We've had friends and family members affected by the disease ourselves, and we know what a devastating impact it can have not just on those afflicted, but also on their friends, family and caregivers. Your photos, videos and multimedia could make a big difference by helping to raise funds and attention in the search for a cure -- and that's a noble cause indeed!

(via Time Magazine. Image of Bob and Diane Martin courtesy of the Bob and Diane Fund.)