CONWAY — Melissa Longing said there is still time to get tickets to the second annual Cruisin’ 4 Alzheimer’s Care event, scheduled for 6-10 p.m. Saturday at the Conway Country Club.
Longing is chairwoman of the committee for the Faulkner County Alzheimer’s Walk, which is held each year in Conway.
The event, a fundraiser for Alzheimer’s Arkansas Programs and Services, includes live music from the band Suburban Legend, food, drinks, and silent and live auctions. The big prize is a seven-day Royal Caribbean cruise, Longing said, and guests do not have to be present to win. Raffle tickets are $10 each or $25 for three.
The person who wins the cruise will also receive a large basket of goodies, Longing said, “everything they need to take on a cruise.” The beauty of the prize, Longing said, is that Royal Caribbean has seven ships, and the winner can choose where he wants to go. Taxes and gratuities are paid, she said. It’s up to the winner to get to New Orleans to get on the ship, she said.
“The silent auction, live auction and giving away of the cruise will be done by 8 o’clock,” Longing said. The rest of the night will be “just having a good time.”
A silent auction will include sports memorabilia in the “every-bid-wins” arrangement. The first bidder gets the item for the opening bid, and each subsequent bidder can up the bid in $5 increments and receive the same item, Longing said.
“We’ve got several packages,” she said, including restaurant, casino and jewelry packages. The jewelry package has “10 or 11 pieces of jewelry,” including a half-carat-diamond ring, Longing said.
In the live auction, an original painting by Conway artist Steve Griffith will be auctioned, as well as a two-day, two-man guided deer hunt in Stone County, Razorback basketball tickets and more.
Tickets to the Cruisin’ 4 Alzheimer’s Care event are $35 each or $60 for a couple.
The goal is to raise $13,000 at Saturday’s event, Longing said. Proceeds will benefit Alzheimer’s Arkansas Programs and Services, which will be combined with proceeds from the annual Faulkner County walk held in Conway. Longing started the walk in 2006, and the 10th annual walk is scheduled for Oct. 17 in Buzz Bolding Arena at Conway High School.
“All the money we raise throughout the year goes to the walk goal, which this year is $32,000,” Longing said. “We do fundraisers throughout the year, and all the money collected goes to Alzheimer’s Arkansas Programs and Services. They keep up with it, and at the end of the year, we get to see how much we’ve raised. They help caregivers,” she said. “Any type of caregiver there is, they try to have something for them.”
She said 100 percent of the money raised stays in Arkansas, and 88 percent goes “straight to programs and services, which is big.”
Longing said in a previous interview that the diagnosis of her father, James A. Montgomery, with Alzheimer’s and his death from the disease, as well as that of her mother-in-law, Louise Longing, forever changed her life.
For more information or tickets, email Longing at melissa@thecarpentcenter.net, or call her at (501) 733-2457. Tickets also may be purchased at the door. For more information on Alzheimer’s Arkansas Programs and Services, go to www.alzark.org.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.