A Place On Your Counter

I know you’ve been getting letters, letters from “regular” charities. Probably a lot of them. Us too.  They show up every December because charities know that the end of the year is the time of year we make donations. The letters are probably in a pile on the kitchen counter while you decide which charities you’re going to send money to.

These letters are very good letters. Every word is chosen carefully. The pictures make you wish you had more money to give. The stories touch your heart. The letters tell you that your $25 will feed a homeless person for a month, protect a bald eagle, clean a river, or buy 50 pounds of dog food to keep puppies alive in a no-kill shelter.

Alzheimer’s research isn’t that tangible.  While I can paint a picture of what it felt like when my mother stopped remembering who I was, I can’t tell you that your donation to the AAQI will buy “one hundred millionth” of a cure. It sounds silly to say that it will buy “knowledge” even though that is precisely what it does. It’s hard to see knowledge.  I can tell you that your donations buy supplies for experiments and pay researchers to think really, really hard, but that’s so vague.

The Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative hasn’t sent you a letter yet. We don’t do that. We don’t want to spend a bunch of money on postage, let lone paper and envelopes when we could spend it to buy more knowledge.  No doubt you’ve seen the page on our website where we list 33 Ways To Help.

Here’s a way that isn’t on the list. It’s a “do-it-yourself” letter for your kitchen counter. Just print out this blog and stick it there with the other letters. We’re an honest-to-goodness charity. Your donations are tax-deductible and everything.  Except that we’re different.  If we’re different in the right ways, send us a check too, because more knowledge is the only way to end Alzheimer’s. And we need that cure yesterday.

The AAQI is run entirely by volunteers. No salaries, very little overhead, and you know most of our core volunteers by name.  I know you have other charities to support, the kind that maybe don’t take quilts. It’s all good. All I’m asking for is a place on your kitchen counter with the other charities because the AAQI is just as worthy and just as deserving. (OK, and maybe a $5 donation. You know we will spend it wisely.)

Thank you!
Ami Simms

Founder & Executive Director
Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative
1200 Creekwood Trail
Burton, MI  48509

Or save the stamp and donate online.