We are endlessly grateful to our volunteers for giving their time to better the lives of those impacted by Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Our volunteers are truly the heart of the Alzheimer’s Association here in North Carolina.
In honor of National Volunteer Week 2025, we’ll be spotlighting a different volunteer from our Western Carolina Chapter each day. Today we are featuring …
Steve & Dee Dee Leeolou
Charlotte, NC (Mecklenburg County)
What brought you to volunteer with the Alzheimer’s Association?
Alzheimer’s disease has had a multi-generational impact on our family. My wife Dee Dee and I decided to get our immediate family directly involved in the fight both financially and with our time, and the 45 years of relationships we have built in the Carolinas.
What volunteer role(s) do you have with the Association?
On the national level, we joined the Zenith Society through a multi-year donation. Locally, we felt that the Western Carolina Chapter also needed direct support. So, in addition to allocating some of our family’s annual funding to the chapter, my wife and I agreed to be co-chairpersons of the 2025 Memory Gala in Charlotte [taking place May 2].
What do you enjoy most about your volunteer role?
We enjoy meeting new people and exchanging information that may be helpful in the battle against a common enemy. And, it is gratifying to see the direct impact our support efforts can have in our local community through the various Association outreach programs that can help those who need it most.
What piece of your role do you feel makes the biggest impact?
Being able to reach out to friends and business contacts to improve their awareness of how pervasive this disease has grown to be, how much progress is being made in the search for effective treatments, and ultimately a cure, and gaining their support to educate the growing number of families in our region impacted by dementia who may struggle with what to do and where and where to go for help. We can all make a huge impact.
If someone were considering volunteering with the Association, what would you say to them?
We are dealing with a future public healthcare crisis of potentially epidemic proportions. We all have a common interest to do what we can to control or stop it. We are in this fight together. Let’s each do everything we can NOW so our children and grandchildren will not be impacted by Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.
THANK YOU, STEVE & DEE DEE!
Volunteers truly help move our mission forward. Interested in becoming a volunteer with the Alzheimer’s Association in NC? Visit alz.org/volunteer or call 800-272-3900.
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