Rock Hill’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s is Saturday. Riverwalk will honor its own cause.
The Alzheimer’s Association will host its Rock Hill Walk to End Alzheimer’s this Saturday.
The event, which is both a fundraiser and way to raise Alzheimer’s disease awareness, has raised $75,378.
The money will go for research to cure Alzheimer’s, a degenerative neurological disease that can cause memory loss, problems with language, disorientation and other health problems. Participants are encouraged to organize walks anytime Saturday with their neighbors, logging their participation through the Alzheimer’s Association’s mobile app.
The Riverwalk area of Rock Hill has organized its own event to support the Walk to End Alzheimer’s -- the Riverwalk Team Paul Bockelman Memorial Walk. The event will be a chance to raise money for Alzheimer’s research and remember Bockelman, a Riverwalk resident who passed in the spring of 2021 due to Alzheimer’s.
Kurt Kottcamp, who lived two doors down from Paul and his wife, Sue Bockelman, has spearheaded this event.
“The real goal is the fundraising,” he said. “The walk is just a celebration.”
He hopes for the event to honor Paul, but also Sue.
“They both fought (Alzheimer’s),” he said, “She fought to support him.”
The Riverwalk team has raised $2,800, which exceeded its goal of $2000. Donations are still open, and can be made at act.alz.org/site/TR?team_id=708056&pg=team&fr_id=14772. You can also join the team at this link.
The Riverwalk Team Paul Bockleman Memorial Walk will kick off at 10 a.m. Saturday, in the parking lot of the Giordana Velodrome in Rock Hill. The walk will be two miles, but participants do not have to walk the whole way, Kottcamp said.
Rock Hill residents who are interested in donating or participating in their own walk can find details at https://act.alz.org/site/TR?sid=23932&type=fr_informational&pg=informational&fr_id=14772.
“Alzheimer’s is truly the cruelest disease. Because it leaves you the person and takes the person’s personality. It changes who they are,” Sue says. “The reasons for Alzheimer’s... it’s a mechanical process. There has to be a mechanical solution. And the only way that’s going to be found is through research.”
Remembering Paul Bockelman
Paul was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2000, at age 58.
“I said, ‘OK God, you have to give me 10 years,” Sue said.
She got 20. And they were filled with memories.
Rather than mourn, the couple decided they would fill their life with adventure, selling everything that tied them down. They traversed the lower 48 states from 2003 to 2005, taking the entire trip on backroads.
“It was magical,” Sue says. “We got up, toasted the sun up with our coffee, and said ‘what fun can we have today?’”
When the couple returned from their trip, Paul, who had been an engineer, kept using his skills. What he could do, he did. What he couldn’t, Sue filled in. “Where he went down, I went up,” she said.
From 2008 to 2012, Paul spent his time building the bulk of the couple’s house in Mt. Holly. “Every day he would work and do these beautiful things,” Sue said, “And we would go sit on the porch and drink a beer and just revel in what he had done that day.”
That remained their philosophy -- each day a celebration and a day to be thankful.
The Bockelmans moved to Riverwalk in 2016.
“God put us here from the beginning,” Sue said.
The support they received was “amazing,” she said. She can name everyone who lives on her street.
Saturday’s walk is just another example of the community’s bond. When Kottcamp approached Sue with the idea, she was “very touched,” she said.
Kottcamp says he expects 30-40 people to walk with their team. Sue says it could be between 50 and 60.
Paul’s funeral was in the couple’s hometown of Kansas City.
On Saturday, the Riverwalk community will get the opportunity to do what the Bockelmans did for the past two decades: Celebrate Paul’s life.
This story was originally published September 23, 2021 at 5:01 PM.
