Spoke Your Mind Blog

A Tasteful Evening

by Maxim in

Hello Everyone,

Emily and I have a very exciting opportunity coming up this next Thursday, June 10th. We were asked by the Alzheimer’s Association to be the keynote speakers at a fundraising event called A Tasteful Evening. The gist of the event is that 15 local chefs donate their skills, food and serving staff for the night. These chefs each pair up with a winery to create a lavish feast for the attendees. There is an auction and so forth. It brings in big bucks for the Association and is an excellent opportunity for us to network.

Wish us luck on the speech!

Check out the link:

http://www.alzwa.org/cms/te/default.htm

Thanks and love to you all,

Max

Storyteller Winner for Neuro Film Fest

by Emily in

This is a very touching story told by a husband who recently lost his wife to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), commonly misknown as “Mad Cow’s Disease”.

Cast Your Vote!! (Neuro Film Fest)

by Emily in Film, Neuro Film Festival

We submitted a video titled “The Music in Hugh: A Look at Young Onset Dementia” to the Neuro Film Festival. There’s a contest for audience favorite, and we’d love your vote! Please see below for details.

Voting Has Begun! Cast Your Vote for Fan Favorite

The entries for the 2010 Neuro Film Festival are in and public voting for “Fan Favorite” begins February 17, 2010. The Neuro Film Festival is a contest by the American Academy of Neurology Foundation to help raise awareness through video about brain disorders and the need to support research into preventions, treatments and cures. The entries highlight compelling videos from patients and their families and caregivers about living with a neurologic condition. Voting closes on March 17, 2010.

Voting is easy:

• Step 1: Visit youtube.com/neurofilmfest and log in using your YouTube username and password to view entries. If you don’t have an account yet, sign up now, it’s quick and easy! Gmail users can sign in using their Google username and password as well.
• Step 2: Once logged in, rate each video in the playlist using the star system in the lower left corner, near the play button. Comments have been turned off to allow each video to stand alone and ensure fairness in judging.

The winner of the Fan Favorite award will receive a $500 prize. Two other winners will also be awarded for their filmmaking skills and creativity, as decided by the festival’s jury. A selection of the top videos will be screened at the Neuro Film Festival in Toronto during Stop Brain Disorders Week beginning Sunday, April 11, 2010, in conjunction with the Academy’s 62nd Annual Meeting, the world’s largest meeting of neurologists.

A Reason to Hope Breakfast Video

by Emily in Film

Spoke Your Mind has been collaborating with the local Alzheimer’s Association chapter over the past three months to help with a short documentary project they’re screening at Benaroya Hall in Seattle next month. The event is called “A Reason to Hope”, and this video will highlight four stories (including the Larkin family) to spotlight the humanistic and hopeful side of Alzheimer’s disease.

This process has been rewarding because it’s helped keep up the momentum for our own documentary, and I’ve gotten to know some incredible people. Elise Ricci is the main force behind the documentary segment, and the two of us have been meeting regularly to discuss the purpose and feel for this piece. Aside from filming our own story, Max and I filmed the Nornes family and through that befriended another local COYOD named Arlene. Arlene’s father Pete is a retired commercial fisherman and is now living with Young Onset Alzheimer’s.

Me, Arlene and Pete Nornes eating smoked crab

Elise and I met up with Arlene and Pete down at the Fisherman’s terminal in Ballard back in December to film the “Annual Holiday Smoked Crab” event. I felt a strange sense of belonging down at that terminal- hanging with a bunch of Norwegians (I’m part Norwegian myself) and eating seafood that I thought, “I love how filming can carry people to so many random and beautiful situations…” I am confident this documentary piece will indeed be hopeful.

For more information on the breakfast, visit this link.

New Blog Focus

by Emily in photos

We originally set up this blog for the “Spoke Your Mind Bicycle Tour” to share stories from the road. And so with the end of our tour last September, also came an end to our active blog posts.

However, despite our stagnant blog, we have been very active offline here in Seattle. And now with a new place and name for this blog, we will share all things relating to Young Onset Dementia from here on out.

We encourage those who are curious what we’ve been doing the past few months to watch our latest SpokeTube video “Spoke Your Mind: In a Nutshell”.

Updates to come…

-Emily and Max (pictured below with our dads)