I’m so honored and humbled to have been selected as the Culture Honoree at the upcoming 2024 CaringKind Forget-Me-Not Gala on Monday, June 3rd at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City alongside Anne White, President of Lilly Neuroscience, and Joanna Peña-Bickley, CEO of Vibes Ai, Former Head of R&D, Alexa Devices at Amazon. Past cultural honorees have included Peter Gabriel, Julianne Moore, and David Hyde Pierce.
As some of you may know, both my beloved mother and sister suffered from Alzheimer’s/dementia and I saw and experienced firsthand how devastating an Alzheimer’s and related dementia diagnosis and journey can be. My mother Marge was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2009, and died in 2017. Those 8 years watching her slip away more and more each week were some of the most painful imaginable. Shortly after my Mom's death my sister Kiki was diagnosed with early onset dementia, and died last November at age 62. It was 14 years of overwhelming grief, hopelessness, frustration, rage and heartache watching them slowly lose their light.
For over 45 years, CaringKind, a 501(c)(3) organization, has been the leading expert on Alzheimer’s and related dementia caregiving. They create, promote, and deliver comprehensive and compassionate care and support services for individuals and families affected by Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias nationwide. CaringKind believes in the power of caregiving and seeks a world where everyone dealing with dementia has the support they need, when they need it, where they need it.
The Forget-Me-Not Gala is CaringKind’s most important and largest fundraising event of the year. Corporate, business and community leaders and tastemakers, as well as families impacted by Alzheimer’s and related dementias, come together to help us achieve our goal – set this year at $1.5 million. Not only will donations support their regular suite of programs and services offered in multiple languages free of charge, such as the CaringKind Helpline and the in-person and virtual support groups but all funding raised will help with NEW initiatives including expanding the Early- Stage Center, the evidence-based Cognitive Stimulation Therapy offered nationwide, and hiring more Helpline staff and social workers.
Please join me and the life changing work CaringKind is doing by visiting the Gala website at www.ckgala.org either as a Gala guest or as a Gala sponsor. And please share this organization doing such wonderful things with your network to collectively create positive change for those who need it most. It would mean the world to me to have your support during this special evening of making a difference.
Your help ensures CaringKind’s ongoing commitment to building the foundation of care that’s essential in serving legions of families, patients, and caregivers in need.
Together lets raise the roof, raise the goal, and do it in honor of all of those that have been and will be affected by this horrible disease.
In gratitude and love from me, my mom Marge, and my sister Kiki
Johnson Hartig
Founder and Creative Director, Libertine
2024 Gala Honoree
