Spilling the tea: A proud history of raising awareness about dementia
We’re looking back through the archives as we acknowledge 40 years of the organisation
Raising awareness has always been a priority for Alzheimers NZ and this has evolved over the last 40 years – from tea parties to memory walks and awareness months and events.
Back in 1995, Sir Edmund Hillary and Lady June Hillary (pictured) were the special guests at the National Tea Day launch.
This event was the first for Alzheimers NZ and saw a small team rallying to get individuals and organisations around the country involved.
The campaign was to highlight the many people of different ages who are affected when somebody they know develops dementia mate wareware.
“What started off as a fundraising project became a tremendous public awareness raising event,” said then-President Verna Schofield, in the December 1995 edition of Alzheimers News.
“More people are more talking about dementia and know where to get information about services. A big plus has been the number of younger people we have reached with our publicity.”
The day was launched at Parliament in July 1995 at the ‘Mad Hatter’s Tea Party’ hosted by Labour’s Health Spokesperson Lianne Dalziel and attended by television celebrities.
Supported by a range of sponsors, the oversized teapot was crafted by Temuka Pottery and still stands proud in the Alzheimers NZ office in Wellington today.
About Dementia
Nationally co-ordinated events continued to gain traction in the 2010’s.
There were two significant awareness raising initiatives which came to life in 2014 – the launch of the ‘About Dementia’ campaign and the start of the national Memory Walks.
The former was a two-year $1.2 million national campaign funded by the Ministry of Health, to bring dementia out of the shadows and into the sunshine – built around the key themes of hope, action and respect.
This was the last time government funded a dementia specific national awareness campaign of this scale.
It featured stories from people living with dementia mate wareware and their whānau including TV personality Colin Mathura-Jeffree and former All Black captain Reuben Thorne.
“The development and launch of the About Dementia campaign was met with more positivity and media attention than we could ever have anticipated,” said former Chief Executive Catherine Hall, in the 2014 Annual Report.
The same year saw the launch of Memory Walks around the country – a nationally coordinated event supported by local Alzheimers organisations.
The walks were launched to a crowd of 500 purple T-shirt wearing walkers at Alzheimers South Canterbury’s Memory Walk in Timaru.
“Our first memory walks were in Founders Park and they were huge,” recalls current Alzheimers Nelson/Tasman Manager Heather Lackner.
“There was a bit of fundraising connected but it was a really good way of raising awareness.”
Then and now
Raising awareness continues to be one of the priorities for the organisation today.
This year marks the 15th annual World Alzheimers Month campaign by Alzheimer’s Disease International in September, and we’ve been supporting this since 2013.
Historically, this month sees the launch of the World Alzheimer Report, and other initiatives such as national radio campaigns and events held by local Alzheimers organisations.
This year two major events will be held during the month – a political panel at the start and our conference at the end. Register now to join us at each event!
