MAMLN Purple Envelope Campaign

For those who may not know, the Montevideo Area Memory Loss Network (MAMLN) has been quietly raising money to support various projects to raise awareness about memory loss issues and dementia. Lori Peterson, memory Care Coordinator for MAMLN, recently spoke about the group's Purple Envelope Cam - paign.

Peterson is one of the founders of MAMLN.

"We had started the MAMLN group even before I began working here as Memory Care Coordinator. Once I became employed here, we thought there were a lot of things we could do to raise awareness, so we came up with a dream list of the things we wanted to accomplish as a group," she said.

The group began with very minimal funding.

"When we would have an event, all of our different groups who were involved in MAMLN would get together and pool our money to make the event work," Peterson said.

The list of things MAMLN wanted to do wasn't a long one, but they were important things.

Peterson said, "We wanted to give information to the library. We wanted to bring a big name speaker, Teepa Snow, to our community.

We wanted to offer free education to local businesses.

We wanted to help the in-home program, and we wanted to help fund Gretchen Reeve's support group."

With these things in mind, Peterson came up with the idea of the Purple Envelope Campaign.

"We'd done something similar at our church with the youth group," she said.

Peterson explained how the Purple Envelope Campaign works: "We took two hundred envelopes and labeled them from one dollar all the way up to two hundred dollars. We asked our members to each take ten envelopes with ten different amounts to go around and ask for donations. The idea was to ask people to donate the amount that was printed on the envelopes."

MAMLN members went door to door seeking donations, and many local businesses responded by giving generously.

Peterson said: "You'll also find the envelopes at our events, where anyone can donate. It's really easy, if you want to donate $10, you would take an envelope marked $10. If you want to donate $100, take an envelope marked $100!"

With the help of the money raised by the Purple Envelope Cam - paign, MAMLN was able to bring renowned speaker Teepa Snow to Monte - video in 2015. "Without that money, we would never had been able to bring her here," said Peterson.

MAMLN takes a percentage of what they receive from the Purple Envelope Campaign to give to each of the different programs they support.

Through the campaign, MAMLN was able to donate books to the Montevideo-Chippewa County Library, as well as give them $200.

The books are written for children who may have a relative, or someone else they may know, who is suffering from the effects of memory loss or dementia. The information is presented in a way that is easily understood by children. Peterson said: "When we looked at what books were available in the library about memory loss and dementia, we thought that maybe we need to have some books for the kids to help them understand."

The Purple Envelope Campaign is ongoing.

"Any amount we raise will go to support all of our projects," said Peterson. "When you have a little something to work with, your options are greater for what can be done!"

So far, about two-thirds of the envelopes have been returned. "We are very thankful for the support of the businesses who helped us get started, and when this Purple Envelope Campaign is finished, we may just start another one," Peterson said.