Community Corner
Long Valley’s ‘Mind Protectors’ Team Seeks Walkers, Sponsors
The team is walking in memory of longtime Long Valley resident Michael Regan and in honor of others who fought Alzheimer's disease.
LONG VALLEY, NJ - “Fighting to Remember” is the mantra of “The Mind Protectors” team that plans to walk in memory of those they loved who lost their fight to Alzheimer’s disease and for those continuing to battle it.
The team plans to walk on Sunday, Oct. 24 at Horseshoe Lake Park in Succasunna, said team co-captain and spokesperson, Shannon Regan.
“All members of ‘The Mind Protectors’ team have been personally impacted by Alzheimer’s disease,” said Regan, who lost her father, Michael, in 2019.
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“We walk to honor our family members who have lost their battle to Alzheimer’s disease and we walk to support our friends and family currently fighting Alzheimer’s disease and we walk with the hope that one day a cure will be discovered,” she said.
In past walks, the team raised more than $20,000 for the Alzheimer’s Association.
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Long Valley is a community dear to the Regan family’s heart, Shannon Regan said, with her parents Michael and Marilynne having lived there for 33 years, raising Shannon and her brothers Jonathon and Robert in the community.
Shannon Reagan said her mother, brothers and her sisters-in-law walk annually. Her father joined them during their walk in 2018, when he was well enough to, in Bradley Beach.
Michael Regan was 69 when he passed away in 2019, having been trained in military intelligence in the U.S. Army and dedicating the remainder of his career to corporate security.
In the early 1980s, he was a Homeland Security volunteer for the Borough of Peapack-Gladstone.
While a Long Valley resident, he was an assistant baseball coach for one of his son’s teams for several years.
“Many people on our team have a story about a family member as well so we do all support one another,” Shannon Regan said. “A lot of The Mind Protectors are from Long Valley, as well as surrounding towns in New Jersey.”
Join or donate to The Mind Protectors team here.
Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at jennifer.miller@patch.com.
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