Remembering When

Elaine is an active volunteer with the Alzheimer’s Association Speaker’s Bureau. Her focus is to educate the public on all aspects of Alzheimer’s Disease and how it can affect a family. She’s a facilitator for the Alzheimer’s Association’s, Changing Gears and Stress Busters programs. She also leads the support group at AT&T Baylor Memory Center in Dallas.

On January 8, 2019, the Greater Dallas Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, awarded Elaine the CARES trophy for her Commitment, Advocacy, Research, Education and Support for the Dallas and Northeast Texas region. In June 2018, in Washington DC Elaine, with 1200 other volunteers, attended the Alzheimer’s Forum. Their goal, to visit and encourage all members of Congress to promote the importance of Alzheimer’s research.

That’s current events. Before all that, Elaine grew up in a military family. Her dad, an army officer, was stationed at different military bases across the United States and Germany. Naturally, the family was exposed to history and different cultures.
Growing up with all the military travel, Elaine still made her own connection with her grandmothers. Over the years, when the opportunity was there, in college or raising a family, she volunteered at nursing homes. Even bringing her young son to play checkers with the residents. Through these years, Alzheimer’s took the lives of her grandmothers and mother.

History was a part of her life, but it was her dads’ love of genealogy and the use of the ‘new’ internet that sparked an interest in family history. Eventually, with her dad, those two interests connected with distant family relatives in Germany.
It wasn’t long before she discovered APH, the Association of Personal Historians, became a certified instructor in Guided Autobiography then later, to improve her public speaking, became an active member in Dallas Toastmasters.

In the last few years, with time and research, that’s lead to work as a historical story teller. Elaine has a way of making historical events and personalities interesting and entertaining. She takes that talent to clubs, churches, senior communities and other interested groups.

Using what she learned in Toastmasters, she became a volunteer with the Alzheimer’s Association. The time was right.

It’s an easy fit for Elaine to combine personal history, the education arm of the Alzheimer’s Association’s Speaker’s Bureau and her historical storytelling. It all works together.