On October 6, 2008 we shared the story of Max Wallack, a young man from the Boston area who had just celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. It was Max’s mitzvah project which got our attention. Remembering his great-grandmother who suffered from Alzheimer’s and lived with Max and his family for a time, Max decided to collect puzzles and donate them to local nursing homes. It seems that after a little research Max learned that for patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s doing puzzles can be very helpful – what a great way to honor his great-grandmother’s memory.
Fast forward to December 2009…much has happened to Max and Puzzles to Remember. As he had promised, Max, working on his own, filed for and received federal non-profit status for Puzzles to Remember (in a record 4 weeks!) and has since gone on to win several grants to help him with his work. He has now collected thousands of puzzles, expanded his beautiful web site which we recommend you visit (www.puzzlestoremember.org), is donating puzzles to several veteran’s homes, and just this week was notified that he has qualified as a Giraffe by our friends at the Giraffe Project in Washington State!
Despite our offer to help Max with some of the shipping expenses he incurs he refuses to accept any funding from the Good People Fund. As he has mentioned several times, "there are way too many hungry and sick people who need your help. I will get more grants to help me with my expenses."
We can’t help but wonder what Max will be doing next…
