Boy Combines Love of Grandfather, Baseball to Fight Dementia

A Bethesda boy combined the two things most important to him – his love of baseball and his ailing grandfather – in a larger effort to combat dementia.

Max Portnoy, 12, was joined by dozens of classmates and Little League players on Sunday at a school gym, where they played catch for three hours. Max organized the "Catch-a-Thon" as a fundraiser to help his grandfather, who has a debilitating form of dementia called FTD (frontotemporal dementia).

"Well, I love baseball and my grandfather so I thought it would be fun if I combined the two so I could play baseball to help my grandfather," Max told WJLA TV.

His grandfather, Rabbi Hershel Portnoy, is a former Army chaplain. The hard-hitting disease has left Portnoy immobile, unable to speak or eat.

"It's really hard for me, because I can't really communicate with him at all, so it's hard to know what he's thinking," Max says.

His “Catch-a-Thon” has to date raised about $17,000 for the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration. The money will be used for research into the disease.

"This is a way for us, a lot of people that he touched, to come together and say, ‘now you need us. You need our help’ and they can now give something back to him," Aryeh Portnoy, Max's father, told the TV station.

While the fundraiser was going on Sunday, Max's grandfather called in from his home in New York.

"My Zady is watching us right now on Skype, so I just wanted to say, 'Zady this is for you and I love you,'" Max said to his grandfather and the crowd.