Lucy's Revenge is a project in memory of Lucy Plunkett to raise funds for Alzheimer's research and support services while showcasing Mississippi's waterways. All donations go directly to the Mississippi Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association.
If there is ever an easy answer to the often posed question about where to have an worry-free paddle without the worry of shuttling in Central Mississippi, it has to be the Ross Barnett Reservoir. This week Lucy's Revenge, in conjunction with the newly formed Central Mississippi Paddling Mafia, took to the Ross Barnett with a vengeance in an attempt to see what she had to offer. The idea was to find a way to hit the water quickly and put in a few miles after work, or on a quick whim.
We had no problem.
On Tuesday afternoon Kelly McGinnis, Dawn Henderson, Sharon and I launched from Pelahatchie Shore Park for a sunset tour of Pelahatchie Bay. It was beautful enough that my video from the 4 mile trip inspired another paddling friend, David Ogletree to hit the water this past Sunday to see if he could spot a few of the many hundreds of white pelicans we surprised on the north side of the bay.
The full moon rises over the Pearl River on Friday, March 18.
Friday night brought a full moon, and an opportune time for an 8 mile paddle from Ratliff Ferry to Tommy's Trading Post at Goshen Springs. Kelly, Sharon and I were joined by Michelle Blair and Daniel Stuart. We watched a beautiful sunset and moonrise and paddled past a few campsites as people readied for what turned out to be a sensational weekend of weather. We made it in 2 hours and 20 minutes.
Saturday morning I awoke determined not to get caught at the house. So, I and my youngest son Rickey headed out for an overnight trip down the Pearl River from the spillway to Lefluer's Bluff; a 12 mile trip. With the help of my trusty shuttling assistant and oldest son Isaac, I dropped my equipment and Rickey at the spillway, drove my vehicle to Lefluer's Bluff and was driven back to start our adventure.
Rickey Plunkett on the Pearl River.
The launch at the spillway was crowded with fisherman, but just beyond the first river bend the noise of the spillway and the mass of humanity surrounding it was already a memory. The water was pushing at a brisk 4 miles per hour, and we easily floated a quick 4 miles before deciding on a sandbar to make camp.
Rickey spent hours that afternoon sitting in the sand next to the river, digging holes, reading, and just being a kid. There's not a video game in the world that can compete with that. There's nothing quite like seeing your kids lose themselves in the slow pace of the outdoors. That evening, we watched another awe inspiring moon rise over the trees, and after hours of rare uninterupted conversation by the campfire we were serenaded to sleep by a chorus of owls singing along to the background sounds of water churning past fallen limbs.
A beautiful sunrise the next morning and a couple of hot chocolates, and we were packed and back on the water. An almost 8 mile trip should have taken us a couple of hours, but the Pearl River was pushing us along fast, and we were landing at Lefluer's Bluff in just over an hour. I'm glad I got the opportunity to take Rickey with me on this trip, but I'm accustomed to putting in over 40 miles in a weekend. I still wasn't satisfied and I wanted more.
The paddling gods were smiling. By the time Rickey and I stopped off for a quick bite at my friend Roberto's restaurant, my phone was buzzing with another opportunity. Kelly was sending out a call to all members of "the family" to meet up at Pelahatchie Shore Park for an afternoon of exploration. My reply to his text was a simple, "I'm in."
Rickey stayed at home to shower and rest up in preparation for a new week at school. I headed south out of Flora towards Ross Barnett, yet again. Entering Pelahatchie Shore Park, I found a mass of people walking, fishing, disc golfing, and some just laying out on the grass looking up at the cottony clouds. There were no signs of my crew, so I found a parking place to wait. That's when David Ogletree drove up and got my attention and we began talking about where I had spotted the white pelicans a couple of days before. A few minutes later my crew began to arrive; first David Christopher then, Michelle and her husband Kelvin, finally Kelly and his daughter and a friend.
We stayed away from the boat launch. It was a site of constant action and turmoil from boaters loading an unloading their fishing rigs. Instead we launched from a small inlet with easy access. Paddling around the tip of the peninsula and avoiding the boats, we headed east. The water began to lose it's chop as we found ourselves among a couple of small islands and interior waterways. We crossed underneath Spillway Road and into a wooded area adjacent to Millcreek Subdivision, finally running into an impassable weir about two and a half miles into the trip. Were the water not being released at such a clip from the spillway due to heavy rains, we likely could have paddled another mile. Forced to turn back, we made our way through the wooded area again. The west side of the little tributary provided a little visual entertainment: 10-12 foot tall red blooming azalea's, old forgotten camellia's still showing some blooms from their winter show, and the show of light purple wisteria climbing over and through the woods as if in search of something.
We talked of future paddles; our newly formed band of boating brethren.
The summer days are thankfully long, and opportunities are everywhere on and around "The Rez".
Flora, MS. March 18, 2011—Keith Plunkett, Mississippi paddler and organizer of Lucy’s Revenge, is inviting the public to join him for a Mississippi River Adventure March 26-27. Plunkett, along with his wife Sharon, will be joined by fellow paddlers at Quapaw Canoe Company at 291 Sunflower Avenue in Clarksdale, Mississippi at 6:00 am. The two-day adventure will take paddlers from Rosedale to Greenville through some of the wildest areas of the Lower Mississippi River to benefit the Mississippi Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. The cost to participants is $250 per person and includes meals, shuttling, and equipment.
“This is an absolute adventure that participants will never forget,” said Plunkett. “John Ruskey is known around the country for his guides on the Lower Mississippi in his 30-ft voyageur style canoes. Folks don’t even have to paddle, just ride and enjoy!”
FLORA, MS – Keith Plunkett, Mississippi Paddler and founder of Lucy’s Revenge: The Alzheimer’s Paddling Project made the following statement after the release of the new Facts and Figures report by the Mississippi Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association:
“These new numbers show that Alzheimer’s is going to be a significant challenge to our Medicaid system in Mississippi in the coming years. We are a rural state with a large number of individuals already on the Medicaid rolls; that number is going to increase exponentially in the next 10-20 years. It is irresponsible for public officials to ignore that fact. I issued a challenge last month to those individuals campaigning for public office to give a percentage of the millions they have raised in campaign funds and assist the roughly seven (7) percent of Mississippians who act as caregivers in this state. I stand by that challenge! A gift of a simple one (1) percent from campaign war chests could give the Mississippi Alzheimer’s Association the ability to provide support to hundreds of thousands of Mississippians. The help could also benefit early diagnosis efforts which may reduce costs to the state in the future. I support public officials who want to cut government spending, but they should also lead the way in showing that private sector giving can help solve our most daunting challenges. Political slogans don’t fix real problems, and developing long-term policy is only part of the equation. These are real Mississippi families with real problems that don’t end after the legislative session is gaveled to a close.”
Sharon and I enjoyed a sunset paddle around on Pelahatchie Bay at the Ross Barnett Reservoir Tuesday with Dawn Henderson and Kelly McGinnis. We stirred up a few white pelicans, and netted an additional 4 miles.
NEW REPORT SAYS AS MANY AS 198,000 ALZHEIMER’S AND DEMENTIA CAREGIVERS IN MISSISSIPPI
The Mississippi Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association released the 2011 figures for the state today.
In this year’s Facts and Figures report, we see the number of people with the disease growing and the number of friends and family who care for them significantly more than previously reported. The new report reveals there are more than 198,000 Alzheimer’s and dementia caregivers in Mississippi and shedding light on the growing impact of a disease that currently is the sixth-leading cause of death and the only cause of death among the top 10 causes in America without a way to prevent, cure or even slow its progression. In 2010, these caregivers provided over 225 million hours of unpaid care valued at over $2.6 billion. There are an estimated 5.4 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease, including 53,000 living in Mississippi alone.
Most people survive an average of four to eight years after a diagnosis, but many can live as long as 20 years with the disease. This prolonged duration often places increasingly intensive care demands on family members and friends who provide care. Most caregivers are family members who take on a tremendous financial, physical and emotional burden to help care for a loved one with Alzheimer’s or a related dementia.
“Alzheimer’s is a significant threat not only for the nation – but also for the people of Mississippi,” said Patty Dunn, executive director of the Alzheimer’s Association Mississippi Chapter. “With a rapidly aging population at increased risk for developing Alzheimer’s and the number of caregivers growing each year, it will become increasingly important for states to be prepared with dementia-capable support services for people at all stages of the disease.”
Alzheimer’s Impact on States
Medicaid covers nursing home care and other long-term care services in the community for individuals who can no longer afford to pay for long-term care expenses. Ensuring access to Medicaid for those who need it must remain a priority for states as they deal with the escalating Alzheimer crisis. Average per-person Medicaid payments for beneficiaries aged 65 and older with Alzheimer’s and other dementias are nine times higher than Medicaid payments for those without the disease. While Medicaid costs are $37 billion today they will climb almost 400 percent by 2050.
At a time when a number of states are facing tremendous budget challenges, the growing Alzheimer’s population will strain state budgets further. Alzheimer’s has profound implications for future state budgets, and states must prepare now to address the multiple and complex challenges that Alzheimer’s poses to individuals, families and state governments, particularly Medicaid.
While only 4 percent of the general population will be admitted to a nursing home by age 80, for people with Alzheimer’s, 75 percent will admitted to a nursing home, posing significant economic challenges to state Medicaid budgets.
More than half of the states in the country have developed or are in the process of developing state plans. These plans will be instrumental in assessing the current impact of Alzheimer’s on Mississippi and outlining what steps Mississippi lawmakers must take in the coming years to improve its services and support to Alzheimer’s families.
“The latest Facts and Figures report shows the significant impact of Alzheimer’s disease – on the individual, the family, and state and federal governments,” said Patty Dunn, executive director of the Alzheimer’s Association Mississippi Chapter. “This is why we urge state policymakers to support the progression and further refinement of the Mississippi Alzheimer’s plan which can help to set goals for a broad range of related issues such as state support of research efforts, financing long-term care, expanding dementia-capable home and community based services and other important issues.”
Importance of Early Detection
Increasing evidence suggests that early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and timely intervention is beneficial, both for people with the disease and their caregivers. Early diagnosis allows affected people, relatives and their caregivers to plan for the future, obtain medical care to manage symptoms and optimize function, and assists Alzheimer’s families in taking steps to reduce the risk of accidents requiring further medical care. The new report explores the issue of early detection and outlines the various benefits it provides families, including access to valuable support services and resources and also helping to reduce anxiety among caregivers. The Alzheimer’s Association helps newly diagnosed individuals and their families. The Mississippi Chapter offers lunch and learn programs including the Know the Ten Signs campaign as well as several family orientation programs.
“The Alzheimer’s Association is committed to increasing awareness about the importance of early detection and diagnosis,” said Patty Dunn, executive director of the Alzheimer’s Association Mississippi Chapter. “The Family Orientation Program goal is to work with families in the community and connect them to local resources and services that help them to better understand and manage what Alzheimer’s disease introduces into their lives. This knowledge can not only be empowering but extremely helpful to the whole family.”
Delays in diagnosis mean that individuals are not getting treatment in the earlier stages of the disease when they are most effective. They also miss the opportunity to make legal, financial and care plans.
Far more people than previously believed are providing billions of hours of unpaid care for Alzheimer's patients, highlighting the growing impact of a graying population.
Nearly 15 million caregivers — most of them family members but also friends — provide care for people with dementia, says a report being released Tuesday by the Alzheimer's Association.
An estimated 5.4 million Americans have the mind-destroying disease. That it takes so many more people to care for them reflects the burden of an illness that not only robs its sufferers of the ability to do the simplest activities of daily life — but that patients can survive in that increasingly incapacitated state for years, even a decade or two.
"It's too much of a job for any one person," said Dr. William Thies of the Alzheimer's Association. "Even Superman can't do it."
Those caregivers provide 17 billion hours of unpaid care, valued at more than $202 billion. Previously, experts had used a count about a decade ago to estimate that about 10 million caregivers provided 8.5 billion hours of unpaid care for Alzheimer's patients.
Moreover, the time and stress of caring for an Alzheimer's patient takes a physical toll, translating into nearly $8 billion worth of extra health care costs for caregivers, the report says.
There is no known cure, and today's treatments merely help symptoms for a while. While Alzheimer's can strike the middle-aged, it mostly is a disease of older people and thus is expected to skyrocket as the population ages.
Despite all the behind-the-scenes unpaid care, health and nursing home expenditures for dementia patients will reach $183 billion this year, much of it paid by Medicare and Medicaid, the report says.
JACKSON COUNTY, MS (WLOX) - Saturday's "Battle on the Bayou" kayak and canoe race in Jackson County was a big hit. In just it's second year, the number of participants was nearly double last year's turnout.
And they came to the coast from as far away as California and Wisconsin. A total of 190 boats left the starting point at Gulf Hills Resort, with participants paddling nearly 10 miles along Fort Bayou to the finish line at "The Shed."
Colorful kayaks covered the waters of Fort Bayou behind Gulf Hills Resort. Racers warmed up and jockeyed for position before the cannon sounded to start the second "Battle on the Bayou."
Grenadians Larry Veasey and Will Turnage (top photo) push
their way down the Yalobusha River. Four members of the
Yalobusha Area Canoe and Kayak Club took part in
Lucy’s Revenge Paddling Project. The project was a
52-mile three-day trip down the Yalobusha River from
Grenada Lake to Greenwood. It was done to raise awareness to
Alzheimer’s. The local club has been in existence since Oct. 2010
and is seeking new members.
Staff Photos/Leann McCoy
By LEANN McCOY
Staff Writer
Kayaker Keith Plunkett of Flora had two goals in mind when he and several others navigated the Yalobusha River waterway last weekend as part of the Lucy’s Revenge Paddling Project.
Those goals were to bring raise awareness about Alzheimer’s disease and showcase some of Mississippi’s lesser-known waterways, according to Plunkett.
Plunkett and several others kayaked the Yalobusha River during a three-day trip from Grenada Lake to Greenwood for a total of 52 miles.
The event was sponsored by Lifehelp Region 6 Mental Health Center-Garden Park Adult Day Center.
The paddling project is a tribute to Plunkett’s grandmother, Evelyn Kirk Plunkett, also known as Lucy, and the family members who cared for her. Lucy Plunkett died in 1993, but she began showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease as early as 1977.
“That’s what’s so bad about this disease,” Plunkett said. “It takes little pieces from somebody in such a slow way that you almost don’t notice it until it’s forced on you. To watch that happen over time, to someone who was as integral to my life as she was, it was tough.”
Plunkett said he began paddling across the state last July to help raise money for the Alzheimer’s Association and highlight the ongoing efforts of the group and medical professionals who try to defeat the disease.
“Kayaking can be extremely difficult, and when I started, I was doing 25-30 mile treks, and I thought I was going to die,” he said. “A month later, I did 45 miles from the start of the Wolf River all the way down to Bay St. Louis.”
For the Yalobusha River run, he was joined by his wife, Sharon, and 10 others for the trek. He was joined for the first day by four members of the Yalobusha Area Kayakers Club (YAK) that paddled from the lake to Holcomb. Other local members include Craig Hill, Will Turnage, and Chriis Horn.
According to Larry Veasey, a member of YAK, the local group has been in existence since June 2010. They were happy to take part in an event for such a worthy cause.
“We really enjoyed helping raise needed awareness for such a dreaded disease,” Veasey said. “We enjoyed our time going down the Yalobusha River to Holcomb.”
Last October, three members of the group took part in the Phatwater Challenge. It was a 42-mile race down the Miss. River betweem Port Gibson and Natchez. A total of 200 boats took part in the race.
“It was a blast,” Veasey said. “The Corps of Engineers stopped barge traffic down the river and it was impressive to see 200 boats competing in the race.”
The group has planned an outing at Six-Mile Lake near Avalon.
Veasey said that the group is always looking for new members.
“We are more of a group than a club,” Veasey said. “It’s a way to get out and get some exercise. We invite anyone interested to come kayak with us anytime.”
Those interested in being part of the group can contact Veasey at 417-2858. They can also look on Facebook searching for Yalobusha Area Canoe and Kayak Club. The address for Facebook is http://www.facebook.com/.
Robin Whitfield is a paddling friend and artist in Greenwood. During our recent 3-day trip on the Yalobusha River trip she helped us shuttle vehicles from Grenada to Greenwood so they would be there for us when we arrived, and she joined us for a day and a half of paddling; one leg from Highway 8 to Malmaison ramp, and another from the mouth of the Yalobusha and Tallahatchie as they form the Yazoo, about 18 of the 52 miles. During that time, Robin and I were able to visit and talk about her life and her dedication to Mississippi rivers and the outdoors. She is one of the many wonderfully interesting personalities you meet while getting to do what we do.
It was great to meet her, and I look forward to the work we'll do together to bring awareness to Mississippi waterways through Blueway development. Toward the end of the video you'll see where she, Hart Henson, and John Coleman join us for the last three miles of our trip.
