Traffic in Masterton came to a brief stop on Saturday as marchers walked down Queen St. About 120 people walked from the Horseshoe car park to the Solway showgrounds to raise awareness of dementia.
A field officer for Alzheimers Wairarapa Philippa Hintz said the response to the first-time event was great.
"We were delighted with it ... we had lots of positive feedback. People were saying they were walking for granddad."
Fulton Hogan stopped traffic as participants marched to the sound of bagpipes through the central part of town. Organisers also created a memory tree in the showgrounds, where participants wrote messages to loved ones on paper forget-me-nots and placed them on a designated tree.
Alzheimers New Zealand estimate around 50,000 Kiwis are living with dementia.
