The Longest Day 2026: Do What You Love to End ALZ
Every June, the Alzheimer's Association builds a framework around the summer solstice and Alzheimer's Disease to turn private grief into public action. In 2026, that framework has a new name: Do What You Love to End ALZ. New name, same fight, and a few things that are genuinely different this year - including some research news that would've seemed optimistic two years ago. The team behind The Genius of Marian documentary wants to share this year's details to help anyone wondering how to get involved find their path.
A new name, the same fight
June 21st. The day with the most light.
The Alzheimer's Association has used the summer solstice as the anchor for this campaign for years - the idea being that the longest day mirrors the exhausting, endless quality of caregiving. It's a good metaphor. Maybe a little on-the-nose, but it lands.
For a long time the event was called The Longest Day. You picked an activity you loved, registered through the Association, and did it from sunrise to sunset to raise money. Bridge clubs ran 12-hour games. Hikers took on mountain ranges. Bakers didn't leave their kitchens. The American Contract Bridge League alone raised over $800,000 in a single season.
The rebrand to Do What You Love to End ALZ is less about changing the event and more about removing the one thing that kept people from joining: the calendar. June 21st isn't always possible. Caregivers especially know this. So now you pick your date. The solstice is still the centerpiece for most people, but it's not a requirement anymore.
New hashtags: #DoWhatYouLove and #ENDALZ. The 24/7 helpline is still 800.272.3900. Every dollar still goes to research, care, and support.
How to get involved this year
Go to alz.org/dowhatyoulove. Pick something. Pick a date. Set up a page. The Association sends a welcome kit.
That's genuinely it. The whole point of the rebrand was to get out of people's way.
The activity categories are broad on purpose:
- Exercise - hikes, bike rides, 5Ks, yoga sessions
- Sports - golf tournaments, pickleball, tennis, bowling
- Games - bridge, mahjong, board games, livestreamed gaming
- Arts - karaoke nights, knit-a-thons, art auctions, concerts
- Hobbies - baking, gardening, fishing, crafting
- Parties and events - cookouts, costume parties, dance nights
- Fundraise only - donation pages tied to birthdays, anniversaries, graduations
- Host a screening - bring The Genius of Marian to your community as a conversation-starting event around Alzheimer's awareness
The American Contract Bridge League has raised over $800,000 in a single season. Mah Jongg for Memories keeps growing. These aren't small community efforts anymore - they're organized, scaled, and they work.
And if you're a caregiver right now and none of that sounds manageable - that's fine. Donate to someone else's page. Share a link. Wear purple on June 21st. Show up for an hour at something happening near you. The signal still matters even when the gesture is small.
What the 2026 Alzheimer's landscape actually looks like
The honest answer is: still bad, but different.
7.4 million Americans age 65 and older are living with clinical Alzheimer's dementia right now, per the Alzheimer's Association's 2026 Facts and Figures report. That could hit 13.8 million by mid-century. Care costs - not counting unpaid family labor - will clear $409 billion this year. Nearly 13 million family members and friends put in over 19 billion hours of unpaid care last year.
Those numbers don't move fast. What has moved is the awareness conversation.
The Association's April 2026 report found that 9 in 10 American adults say brain health is as important as physical health. Nine in ten. And yet only 9% say they actually know what to do about it. That gap is the thing the Association is now going after directly - not just with fundraising, but with a new initiative called (re)think your brain, a 6-step challenge built around the findings of the U.S. POINTER study.
That study - published in JAMA in 2025, after years of work - showed that stacking healthy habits together actually protects cognitive function. Physical activity, diet, sleep, social engagement. Not one of them alone. All of them together. It's not a cure and nobody's claiming it is. But it's the clearest evidence yet that what you do in midlife has real consequences for what happens to your brain later.
Worth knowing. Worth acting on.
The science is moving - faster than most people realize
Ten years ago the Alzheimer's drug pipeline was mostly amyloid-focused and mostly failing. Today it looks nothing like that.
The 2026 drug pipeline report counts 158 drugs in active clinical trials - up from 138 in 2025. Eight Phase 3 trials hit their primary completion dates this year. The targets have diversified too: amyloid now accounts for roughly 20% of the pipeline, down from 33% a decade ago. Inflammation and tau proteins have each grown to fill that gap. Researchers stopped betting everything on one mechanism.
Two drugs are already approved and in use. Leqembi (lecanemab) and Kisunla (donanemab) both slow cognitive decline in early-stage Alzheimer's. And late last year, the FDA approved an at-home injectable form of Leqembi - meaning patients who were doing regular IV infusions at a clinic can now self-administer. For anyone who's coordinated that kind of schedule around a loved one's care, you know what that change actually means in practice.
April 30, 2026: the FDA approved Auvelity (dextromethorphan-bupropion) for Alzheimer's-related agitation. First non-antipsychotic approved for this. Agitation is one of the hardest behavioral symptoms to manage - for the patient and for whoever's in the room with them. This fills a real gap.
Dr. Jeffrey Cummings of UNLV, lead author of the pipeline report, said it plainly: "Alzheimer's is no longer an untreatable disease." That's a sentence that couldn't have been written five years ago.
The Longest Day concert: one musician, 12 hours, one goal
Grapevine, Texas. June 21st. 10 AM to 10 PM.
Joshua Ingram plays guitar on the Peace Plaza outside Hotel Vin and Harvest Hall - 12 hours straight, from memory, without repeating a single song. His goal is $15,000 for the Alzheimer's Association's North Central Texas chapter. The event is free to attend.
The origin story is simple. Someone asked Ingram how many songs he knew. He didn't know. That question became a fundraiser. The fundraiser became an annual thing. There's something that lands about a performance built entirely on memory raising money for a disease that takes memory away - though I'll admit that framing might be too neat. The point is he shows up every year and plays for 12 hours. That's the thing.
If you're in DFW, go. Details and the donation link at joshuaingram.com/the-longest-day-june-21.
Frequently asked questions
Is The Longest Day still happening in 2026?
Yes, under a new name. The Alzheimer's Association rebranded the campaign as Do What You Love to End ALZ. June 21st is still the primary date for most participants, but the new format lets you register a fundraiser for any day of the year.
What is the ASAP Act?
The Alzheimer's Screening and Prevention Act is bipartisan legislation that would create Medicare coverage for blood-based dementia screening tests - tests that can detect Alzheimer's before symptoms show up. It has 152 cosponsors across both chambers as of 2026. You can push your representative to support it at alzimpact.org/ASAP_Act.
What causes 70% of dementia?
Alzheimer's disease accounts for an estimated 60-80% of all dementia cases, per the Alzheimer's Association.
What is the (re)think your brain challenge?
A 6-step program the Alzheimer's Association launched in May 2026, grounded in U.S. POINTER study results. Covers physical activity, diet, sleep, cognitive engagement, stress, and health monitoring. Sign up at rethinkyourbrain.org.
Where does the money go?
Research grants, care and support services, the 24/7 helpline, and advocacy work like the ASAP Act push.
What you can do right now
The Genius of Marian got made because Banker White pointed a camera at his family instead of looking away. That's the whole thing. You don't have to make a film. But you can refuse to look away too.
Register something. Donate to someone else's page. Watch the film and send it to one person who needs it. Alzheimer's support resources are on this site. The campaign is at alz.org/dowhatyoulove.
The research is moving. The policy is inching forward. June 21st is eight days away.