Chesapeake City Park will fill with walkers on Saturday, October 24, 2026, as the Walk to End Alzheimer's returns to raise money and awareness for a disease that touches hundreds of thousands of families across Virginia. Registration opens at 8:30 a.m., and organizers are expecting roughly 1,000 participants spread across more than 200 teams, all working toward a fundraising goal of $400,000.
The event, organized each October across Hampton Roads, is meant to raise awareness and research funds for Alzheimer's disease, according to WAVY. The station reports the walk itself kicks off at 10:15 a.m., though the official event page for the 2026 Walk to End Alzheimer's - Coastal Virginia lists registration at 8:30 a.m., a Promise Garden Ceremony at 9:40 a.m., and the walk starting at 10:00 a.m. Either way, organizers say registration remains open through the day of the event and is available at ALZ.org/walk.
For Jim Morton, the walk has become something closer to a lifeline than a fundraiser. His wife Lynn was diagnosed with dementia about seven years ago, not long after the couple retired, when Lynn herself asked for memory-related testing even though Jim says he hadn't noticed any issues beforehand. An MRI and a doctor visit led to the diagnosis, which Jim described as painful and something he didn't fully understand at the time, per the same account.
Finding Support Through the Walk
The Mortons say they found comfort and support through the Alzheimer's Association Coastal Virginia, and Jim now calls the annual walk a recharging experience for the two of them. Walk Chair and Alzheimer's Association Southeastern Virginia Chapter Board Member Wes Mason has explained the significance behind the event's Promise Garden, where participants carry flowers of different colors tied to their personal connection to the disease.
The purple flower represents someone who has lost a loved one to Alzheimer's, the orange flower stands for general support of the cause, the yellow flower marks caregivers, and the blue flower is carried by those living with dementia or Alzheimer's themselves, the station's report notes. Jim Morton said the white flower carries its own meaning too: it represents the first person cured of Alzheimer's, a symbol of hope for a disease that currently has no cure.
A Disease With a Growing Footprint
The scale of the disease locally helps explain why the walk matters to so many families. More than seven million people nationwide are living with Alzheimer's, and Virginia alone counts more than 164,000 people with the disease and more than 600,000 caregivers supporting them, per the same wavy.com account. Separately, the Alzheimer's Association describes Alzheimer's as a growing public health crisis in Virginia, noting that its impact is projected to keep rising, and that the state's Virginia Memory Project had already identified more than 700,000 cases of Alzheimer's and other dementia across Virginia in 2024.
That same Virginia Memory Project, codified into law in 2024, integrates self-reported data and medical claims to track the disease statewide, according to the Alzheimer's Association. The organization also reports that the Virginia Department of Health has supported nearly 100 caregiver-focused education sessions, reaching more than 1,100 caregivers.
How to Take Part
Saturday's walk is open to anyone wanting to show support, whether they're carrying a flower for a loved one lost, a diagnosis of their own, or simply a desire to help fund research. Registration stays open right up through the day of the event, and organizers continue to accept donations through the official 2026 Walk to End Alzheimer's - Coastal Virginia page. For families like the Mortons, the morning in Chesapeake City Park offers something money alone can't buy: a community that understands exactly what they're going through.
