San Antonio families touched by Alzheimer's disease are gathering at Six Flags Fiesta Texas this weekend for the city's annual Walk to End Alzheimer's, a fundraising and awareness event organizers describe as the largest of its kind in the world. The walk is set for this Saturday, with the event listed as opening at 8 a.m. at the park.
A Nationwide Push Lands in San Antonio
According to KENS5, the Walk to End Alzheimer's event is set to take place at San Antonio's Fiesta Texas. The San Antonio and South Texas Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association echoes that scale, noting that the walk is held annually in more than 600 communities nationwide and stands as the world's largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer's care, support and research, according to the Alzheimer's Association, San Antonio and South Texas Chapter.
A separate listing for the event places it on Saturday, Nov. 7, at Six Flags Fiesta Texas, 17000 W. I-10, with the event opening at 8 a.m., per the same outlet's Great Day SA coverage. The chapter also says it provides support services at no charge to people affected by Alzheimer's or other dementia, along with their care partners and clinicians.
Why Bexar County Has So Much at Stake
The need behind the walk is substantial. More than 459,300 people in Texas are living with Alzheimer's disease, and over 1,287,000 family members and friends are providing care for them, the Alzheimer's Association reports. Locally, the picture is especially stark: as of 2023, around 13% of Bexar County residents ages 65 and older had the disease, amounting to roughly 33,000 residents, according to Texas Public Radio.
That prevalence has put Bexar County among the top 10 Texas counties for Alzheimer's prevalence, according to KSAT, which described the report as the first to break down figures by county rather than only by state. Texas Public Radio also reported that the number of older Americans who died with Alzheimer's or another dementia doubled between 2000 and 2024, underscoring why local advocates have pushed for more attention to the disease.
A Growing Toll, Measured in Lives and Hours
The scale of the disease nationally helps explain why events like Saturday's draw crowds year after year. An Alzheimer's Association estimate cited by the Texas A&M Center for Community Health and Aging puts the number of Americans living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias at 7.2 million.
Much of the caregiving burden falls on unpaid family members. Such unpaid labor is part of what walks like San Antonio's aim to support through fundraising and awareness.
Saturday's gathering follows a 2023 edition of the San Antonio walk that drew more than 3,000 people to Six Flags Fiesta Texas to show support for those battling the disease, KENS5 reported at the time. It is not established whether this year's turnout or fundraising will match that previous event.
