{"id":8922,"date":"2022-04-28T14:34:24","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T18:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/?p=8922"},"modified":"2022-04-28T14:34:26","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T18:34:26","slug":"get-to-know-gabe-coleman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/get-to-know-gabe-coleman\/","title":{"rendered":"Get to Know \u2026 Gabe Coleman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>By Tiffany Merlo Phelps\u00a0<br><a href=\"mailto:mail@floridanewsline.com\">mail@floridanewsline.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When high school sophomore and Ponte Vedra Beach resident Gabe Coleman participated in the Jacksonville Walk to End Alzheimer\u2019s last year, he carried a yellow flower with him, a \u201cForget Me Not\u201d that symbolized those who care for someone living with the disease.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI also carry it as a symbol of the love I have for my grandmother. The \u2018Forget Me Nots\u2019 are just a really beautiful way to make fighting for a cure more personal,\u201d said Coleman, adding that there are four different colors of flowers\/meanings offered at the walks.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coleman\u2019s reason for walking is very personal. His Grandmother Pat, 82, was diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s in 2017. That diagnosis has motivated Coleman to do more, not just for his grandmother, but for everyone battling the disease. Coleman, who attends Bolles High School, partnered with the Alzheimer\u2019s Association and the Jacksonville Walk to End Alzheimer\u2019s two years ago, raising with his team nearly $10,000 \u201cand counting\u201d for the cause.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coleman, 16, remembers visiting his grandmother every summer when she lived in Tampa. Those memories are precious to him, especially waking up early, heading to his grandmother\u2019s room and watching \u201cSpongebob Squarepants\u201d together. Coleman visits his grandmother now at Starling at Nocatee, an assisted living and memory care facility, where she was moved to be closer to family. While the visits are different today, Coleman said that he still finds ways to connect with his grandmother through nature and humor.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The end game for Coleman: Find a cure for Alzheimer\u2019s. Eliminate the statistic in which 6.5 million Americans are living with the disease.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThat number will be zero,\u201d said Coleman. \u201cThat is when I will be satisfied.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Q: How did you first get involved in the Alzheimer\u2019s Association?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A: My dad, who is a professional photographer, and I volunteered to be photographers at our first walk in 2019. We then created many videos about the cause, and the videos got a lot of exposure. It was amazing to see how it spreads by word of mouth and to see heartfelt reactions to videos of my grandmother. We then asked \u201cHow can we do more?\u201d That\u2019s when we began to reach out to more of our social circles (Coleman plays soccer at Bolles and at Florida Prime), and everyone responded. Our goal is to always get bigger and find more things to do. In November 2021, I was able to get the Acosta Bridge lit up purple for Alzheimer\u2019s Awareness Month, which was a spectacular sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Q: What have you learned about your grandmother because of this disease?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A: I\u2019ve learned a lot about my grandmother, and not just the stories of her childhood from Minnesota that she tells on her better days. I\u2019ve learned a lot about her as a person because she\u2019s battling a challenge that is about as unique as they come. She is just an amazing person, and she has lived an amazing life.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Q: What have you learned about yourself through this journey?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A: I\u2019ve learned that each and every participant in the fight to find a cure makes a huge difference. I\u2019ve only been actively supporting the Alzheimer\u2019s Association for a few years, but the reach I\u2019ve somehow managed to have has amazed me. And this goes back to my number one principle of Alzheimer\u2019s Association support: spread the word.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Q: What do you want people to know about Alzheimer\u2019s?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A: I think a lot of people just don\u2019t know enough about Alzheimer\u2019s in general, from how many people it affects to the way it creeps up slowly and its varying ways of hiding away one\u2019s memories or personality. Sometimes it starts with the memories that are farthest back, and sometimes it ravages everything in the short-term instead. Sometimes it does both. And then sometimes, it does neither until one day, small physical impediments morph into complete memory loss. Like I said, it creeps up slowly, but once it takes hold, there is no cure. Not yet, anyway.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Q: How do you feel about the support you have received for this cause from all areas of your life?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A: The community support at the last walk meant everything to me. There were 800 walkers and 200 volunteers, gathered for an outdoor event on an especially gloomy day. The array of \u201cForget Me Nots\u201d brightened up the day, though, as did the smiling faces of 1,000 people who had chosen to be there. The best feeling is that walks like the one at the University of North Florida happen all over the United States, and that our 1,000 is just one example of a huge community all walking towards the same goal.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>[Author\u2019s Note: If you are interested in participating in the Jacksonville Walk to End Alzheimer\u2019s or getting involved in any way, please go to the Alzheimer\u2019s Association\u2019s (Central and North Florida Chapter) website at alz.org.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Photo courtesy Sean Coleman\u00a0<br>Gabe Coleman\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Tiffany Merlo Phelps\u00a0mail@floridanewsline.com When high school sophomore and Ponte Vedra Beach resident Gabe Coleman participated in the Jacksonville Walk to End Alzheimer\u2019s last year, he carried a yellow flower with him, a \u201cForget Me Not\u201d that symbolized those who care for someone living with the disease.&nbsp; \u201cI also carry it as a symbol of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10],"class_list":{"0":"post-8922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ponte-vedra","8":"tag-get-to-know"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - 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