By Sabrina Rodriguez

If Nelson Dellis reaches the top of Mount Everest in 2013, he will have reached a milestone in raising awareness of Alzheimer’s disease.

As the USA Memory Champion for two years running, Dellis has combined his passion for mountain climbing with memory awareness. The University of Miami graduate started training his memory in 2009 after watching his grandmother’s memory deteriorate from Alzheimer’s. He created Climb for Memory, a non-profit organization that combines climbing with Alzheimer’s awareness. Dellis, 28, has climbed Mount Rainier, Mount McKinley, Mont Blanc, and almost reached the summit of Mount Everest.

Dellis is one of the speakers at Friday’s TEDx program at Ransom Everglades School in Coconut Grove, one of four upcoming TED-inspired events in South Florida.

“Speaking at TEDx is a great way for me to share my cause with the community and show everyone how and why I got inspired to do what I do,” said Dellis, a Miami native.

The conferences are an offshoot of TEDTalks, a forum that began in 1984 and has featured such luminaries as Bill Gates and Bill Clinton discussing world issues. Since then, more than 1,000 TEDTalks, in 18 minutes or less, have been held across the globe and are featured free on the website TED.com (TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design).

The TEDx program is an independently organized branch of the TED organization that allows communities to stimulate a TED-like experience in a local setting.

“The two big goals of TEDx are for people to share new ideas and secondly, for these thinkers to connect with others who want to learn and share their thoughts, too,” said Matthew Haggman, the Miami program director for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and a co-curator of TEDxMIA. The Knight Foundation helps fund the event.

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