GREAT FALLS - The Montana Alzheimer’s Association is partnered with MSU Extension and the Great Falls Public Library to host the “Memory Café.”
Katrin Finch, family and consumer science agent for MSU Extension, said the individuals experiencing any form of memory loss often attend Memory Café with their caretaker or partner.
“Memory Cafe is just a place for community, connection, and support for anyone that's concerned with memory loss,” said Finch. “We meet once a month and participate in a variety of different activities ranging from brain development or brain stimulation type activities like puzzles [or] other times we do things like baking, cooking to kind of focus on nutrition or physical activity.”
The Memory Café is funded by a grant through the Montana Geriatric Education Center at the University of Montana in Missoula, according to Sue Warren, a volunteer for the Montana Alzheimer’s Association.
“There are also other Memory Cafés across the state,” said Warren. “We’re really trying to make an effort with MSU Extension to develop these same cafés in smaller communities and in our county libraries.”
The Memory Café is free to attend, all are welcome, and they meet the first Tuesday of every month from 12:30 p.m. until 2 p.m.
The purpose of the event is to bring people together who have early or middle-stage Alzheimer’s or any other mild cognitive impairment to help them socialize with others and engage their brains in beneficial ways.
They gather and socialize over coffee and snacks while participating in brain-stimulating activities and they are always wanting more people to join.
“The Memory Café is open to anyone with a mild cognitive impairment,” Warren said. “We usually have 18 to 20 people that come, and we would love for anyone that feels comfortable to join us in the privacy of the library.”
For more information or to join in the Memory Café, contact Katrin Finch at MSU Extension 406-454-6980. The library is at 301 Second Avenue North in Great Falls.
