The Carbondale community will have a chance to participate in a walk to raise money for Alzheimer’s disease support, care and research on Saturday.

The fundraising event, which is hosted by the Alzheimer’s Association and starts at 8:30 a.m. at Campus Lake, has a goal of raising $50,000. Of that, $23,478 has already been raised by participating teams, according to the walk’s website.

“Alzheimer’s disease is becoming more and more common,” said event manager Courtney Finigan. “Over five million Americans are suffering from the disease and about 220,000 in Illinois. We need to find a cure because they’re expecting that number to triple by the year 2025.”

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The Walk to End Alzheimer’s organization includes 600 groups across the country, 27 of which are in Illinois, she said.

Registration begins at 8:30 a.m, followed by an opening ceremony at 9:30 a.m.

At 10 a.m., the walk will kick off its 3.2 mile route, according to the event website.

This is the second year SIU has hosted the event, and Finigan said the group is very community-based.

“We’ve got a big committee that helps us out, we have a lot of volunteers, a lot of businesses that get involved,” Finigan said.  “We have a great relationship with SIU.”

Finigan said 40 teams are registered with a total of 225 participants, but with same-day registration the organizers are expecting that number to climb to 300.

Staff writer Kitt Fresa can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @kittfresa.

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