The UCF women’s basketball team took part in the Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s in downtown Orlando on Saturday morning. The Knights joined roughly 2,500 participants in the 1-mile walk around Lake Eola to bring awareness to a disease that more than five million Americans live with every day.
“Over half our team in some way has been affected by the disease, so to have the opportunity to work with [Orlando Sentinel columnist] George Diaz and the leaders here is huge,” Associate Head Coach Greg Brown said. “We’re on the front end of it, trying to get ahead of the curve to bring awareness to it.”
Several of the team’s members have had family or close friends diagnosed or die from the disease, and while they carried those with them in the walk, the Knights also participated as a special nod to Tennessee women’s basketball head coach Pat Summitt.
Summitt revealed publicly in August that she was diagnosed with early on-set dementia, Alzheimer’s type. Brown worked with Summitt at Tennessee from 2002-04 and cites her as one of the biggest influences on his life outside of his parents.
“Anything that we can do to help honor her and her toughness through this, we’re more than happy to do,” Brown said.
Walk to End Alzheimer’s is the nation’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer care, support and research. For more information, visit www.alz.org or call 1-800-272-3900.