This organization was started by Noelle Fischer whose grandfather, who has Alzheimer’s Disease, moved in with her family. As an only child who was quite mature for her age, she had no idea where she was in the family. She volunteered at her local library, her church, Girl Scouts, and was overall very independent. Noelle was also very successful in her studies. When her grandfather moved in, Noelle felt that her needs and attention from her parents and herself were redirected towards her grandfather, who needed supervision and to be reminded of basic tasks such has showering everyday and making sure he brushed his teeth. Noelle could not understand why he could not do anything for himself.
Noelle was returning a wheel, that had detached from a red wagon, to a friend. While returning the wheel, the two friends discussed life and personal struggles. Surprisingly, both friends discussed the difficult struggles of each of their grandparents who had Alzheimer’s Disease.
Despite the fact that the two friends conversed often, they never discussed their grandparent issues. If it were not for Noelle driving to her friend’s work to drop off the red wagon wheel, they would not have started this conversation. From this encounter, Noelle learned that there were other teens who were struggling with the adjustment of family dynamics due to a grandparent who has Alzheimer’s Disease.
To help her understand why her grandfather acted the way he did, she set out in search of a support group for teens. After not finding a group, Noelle realized that the conversation about this topic did not exist. So she started her own group, which consisted of six members. This group included long time friends, who never discussed their grandparent issues with each other, until that conversation was started.
Noelle’s support group blossomed into learning more about Alzheimer’s Disease from professionals. This became Noelle’s Girl Scout Gold Award Project. This project laid the foundation to reach out to teens in similar situations which will “Make the World a Better Place”.