Utah tattoo shop organizes Alzheimer’s awareness event
July 22, 2011
Last Saturday, an unlikely business hosted a fundraiser to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association in St. George, Utah. Vamp Body Art, a local tattoo parlor, opened its doors to raise money and promote awareness for Alzheimer’s disease, The Spectrum reports.
Some seniors came to get tattooed – one woman in her 60s wanted some ink to cover up a scar on her leg. Vamp’s tattoo artists and a few guest artists from a nearby parlor tattooed people on Saturday for a 60 percent discount – which is a substantial amount of savings.
“This [business] was freely given to me,” Adam Roettger, the co-founder of Vamp Body Art, told the news source. “The whole point of this [event] was to give back what was freely given to us.”
Roettger, who volunteers as a chef at a local senior center, got other local businesses involved as well. One family-owned bakery donated 50 percent of its Saturday sales to the Alzheimer’s Association.
Alzheimer’s disease affects one in eight individuals over the age of 65, and can increase the risk of falls and other injury because it affects the brain’s cognitive functions. Personal medical alert systems can help protect older adults by sending a medical alert to response teams if they fall or are injured.
