by Jonah Besenty | staff writer

Sophomore Juliana Alfonso-DeSouza didn’t mind the time, energy, and amount of money it would take to annually host a sand volleyball tournament to gather money for the Alzheimer’s Association. She plans to continue hosting the tournament every year.

“At my tournament we had seven teams in total. The average amount of players was six or seven players on each team, and I raised $1,704. I’ll be promoting the tournament further at Johnson to get more students involved. A lot of spouses came, co-workers, they bought raffle tickets ate some food. A few people stayed after the tournament because they liked what I was doing, and they bought raffle tickets,” Alfonzo-DeSouza said

People who attend can donate by purchasing raffle tickets. This money goes directly to the Alzheimer’s Association and helps fund the search for a cause and cure.

The remaining money was then capped for the coming tournament.

“This coming year my goal is $ 2,500 if I could get $3,000 that would be great. There is no entry fee, the tournament will be held at Sidewinders Bar and Grill at Henderson Pass,” Alfonso-DeSouza said

Many who attend the fundraiser either have family affected or are affected by the disease themselves.

“I can say confidently that at least 90% of people there were touched by Alzheimer’s. Because, the thing that people don’t realize is that there’s billions of families that are affected by Alzheimer’s, and it doesn’t get enough research. What I found while I was raising money, all you had to ask was ‘have you been touched by Alzheimer’s?’ and every person would say yes,” Alfonso-DeSouza said.

Alfonzo-DeSouza herself has an affected family member.

“My grandfather, he’s always sacrificed so many things for our family. I feel like that’s the least I can do for him because I’ve seen what Alzheimer’s can do over the course of time, ” Alfonso-DeSouza said.