Amici di Casa Insieme has organised an athletic and supportive event called Maratona Alzheimer. The idea that lies behind the project comes to the convinction that marathoners and people who suffer from Alzheimer's disease have something in common: people afflicted with Alzheimer's walk without a specific destination, wandering and looking for a place to restore and recover; marathoners use to find their wellness through the race itself.
The 42,195-km route starts in Mercato Saraceno and, crossing Roncofreddo, Sogliano al Rubicone and Cesena, ends in Cesenatico. In addition to the traditional Marathon, it is possible to join the 30-km race that starts its route in Borello or the Half Marathon one, starting in Cesena. The event also provides walking courses; the main ones are the 16-km race starting from the Cesena's Orogel Stadium and reaching Cesenatico and the 8-km "Nordic Walking", in the core of Cesenatico. Starting from its 2015's edition, the project has come to be a three-day event, engaged in supporting scientific research and in encouraging wellness and information.
Through the initiative, we would like to reach several goals: we want to create a local sport event that will offer the community the chance to properly get informed about Alzheimer's disease, to implement new strategies to counter dementia and to sustain the ones that suffer from them and their families, while achieving a permanent Alzheimer's fund and keeping some Amici di Casa Insieme's projects alive; among them, the "Laboratori Benessere" project, organised thanks to resources accomplished through the past Alzheimer's marathons, Caffè Dolcini leisure-and-social-integration moments, “Atelier di Arteterapia” art activities, the Convivium pleasure of sharing food and a lot of other initiatives aimed at preparing future volunteers. Moreover, each year, Maratona Alzheimer, Alzheimer Emilia Romagna and other associations carry out a supportive web project intended to give the initiative an extraterritorial appeal.
"Maratona Alzheimer" is sponsored by Wellness Valley, a project promoted by Wellness Foundation that - since 2003 - due to its competences, has been making Romagna the first international district for what concerns wellness and quality of life matters. The marathon is part of a larger event called "Settimana del Buon Vivere", that is to say the sustainable wellness national festival, which takes place every year, thanks to the collaboration between some local intitutions engaged in giving wellness developement their contribute.
In fact, more than 500 volunteers and a forty-ish local sport societies and associations are involved in the event organisation; together, they shape a thick network demonstrating both their deep commitmnent to the cause and the engagement moving the entire initiative.
