INDIA New England News
Sharada Vishwanath
NEW YORKâ The Alzheimerâs Foundation of America (AFA) named Sharada Vishwanath, of Northborough, MA, the first-place winner of its national 2021 Teens for Alzheimerâs Awareness College Scholarship Essay Contest and awarded her a $5,000 college scholarship.
Sharada was chosen from more than 2,000 entries nationwide for her essay about volunteering in the dementia unit of a Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center following her grandfatherâs death from Alzheimerâs disease and the experiences and memories which she made there.
âSharada made a positive impact in the lives of the individuals she served while volunteering at a dementia care center, and those same people changed her for the better as well,â said Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr., AFAâs President and CEO. âHer compassion, passion for helping others, and desire to make a difference in the fight against Alzheimerâs disease
Photo: Shutterstock A new program for local veterans will be available from the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA) to provide free memory screenings to Suffolk County veterans and their families. The program is funded through a grant from funds raised during the 6th Annual Catholic Health Services Suffolk County Virtual Marathon held this past October. Suffolk County is home to the largest population of veterans in New York State, which number 90,000 locally, according to a post on the Suffolk County Marathon Facebook page. Under the AFA’s National Memory Screening Program, memory screening professionals administer a 10 minute virtual (face to face) memory screening. The test consists of a series of questions and tasks that gauge one’s thinking, language, and memory skills, to give a baseline for cognitive functions.