Walk The Moon have been touring with their hit sophomore album Talking Is Hard since it’s release in December of 2014. The band has seen a lot of success with this album. Including, their single Shut Up + Dance making it’s way to the Billboard Top 100, world tours with some of the music industry’s biggest names, multiple headlining shows of their own, and a collection of fans waiting outside venue doors, hours early, with face paint in hand. But no amount of success could stop what would happen next. Walk The Moon had planned on doing a tour this summer of 2016 with indie super-band, Misterwives. The tour was announced as "cancelled" on April 15th by a few posts on social media and emails sent to fans saying,

“We are deeply sorry to say that, due to a serious illness in Nick’s family, we must cancel this summer’s Work This Body Tour. For many years now, Nick’s dad has been suffering from Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease. Unfortunately, it has reached a point where he needs to come home and focus on his family for a while. […]”

The post continues to go into the logistics of what shows they would continue to play and the refunding of tickets already purchased to the tour. Social media began to explode with an outpouring of love and support for the band and Petricca. Petricca later posted a photo on Instagram of him as a young boy with his family expressing his gratitude for the love, support, and understanding from all of the fans.

Many people, including the musicians, actors, writers, and internet personalities many of us look up to, are being affected by this horrible disease. I applaud Walk The Moon and Nick Petricca for stepping forward and bringing, even more, awareness and a harsh reality to Alzheimer’s Disease. It refuses to be silent, and it refuses to stop. I believe we should do the same.

As someone who planned on going to see Walk The Moon on the Work This Body Tour, I want to use this opportunity and inspiration to make a difference and spread awareness to this disease. Even if you haven’t been personally affected by Alzheimer’s, there is a great chance that someone you know has. Here’s the cool part, we can make a difference in so many different ways.

If you would like to learn more about Alzheimer’s, donate to fund research, or learn about the Walk to End Alzheimer’s, please visit the official organization of Alzheimer’s research, HERE.

If you have a smartphone or tablet and love gaming, there is a new game available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store called “Sea Hero.” This is a beautiful, fun, and FREE game that helps to cure Alzheimer’s as you play. For every 2 minutes you play the game, 5 hours of lab research is contributed to finding a cure for Alzheimer’s and Dementia. A few minutes could have a huge impact on finding a cure. HERE is a link to their website explaining the game in better detail.

Impacts can be as simple as adding a banner to your Facebook profile picture to support awareness to Alzheimer’s to friends and family who may have not previously known much about it. Visit the Alzheimer’s Associations Facebook page HERE to download the banner.

There are so many ways, WAY more than the three I have listed in this post, to spread awareness and support for Alzheimer’s Disease. I encourage you to look into your local communities, as well as other websites and organizations, to find out how you can make a difference in all kinds of different ways.