Colby Junge was five years old when his grandmother Patricia moved into his family's Boxford home. For seven years, they listened to Elvis Presley together on a boom box in her room. Patricia had Alzheimer's, and by the end she could no longer remember her family's names. She could still hum along to her favorite songs.

Patricia died in 2021. Colby picked up a guitar shortly after — and calls it one of his biggest regrets that she never got to hear him play.

"I would have loved for her to hear me play while she was still with us," the 17-year-old told the Eagle-Tribune.

Now in its third year, Junge's Melodies of Hope charity concert returns to the North Andover Town Common on Aug. 23, from 4 to 7:30 p.m., featuring three bands with free admission and all donations going directly to the Alzheimer's Association. His goal this year is $7,500. The concert has become a real fixture on the Common — last year's event drew performers including guitarist Frankie Bonsignore to the same spot and time slot.

Junge said the mission has only deepened since he started the concert, as other family members now face their own Alzheimer's diagnoses, adding fresh urgency to his fundraising. His mother, Deanna Junge, said Patricia loved her two grandsons more than anything and cherished the time she spent listening to music with Colby — and that organizing the concert has helped her son process a loss that was hard on the whole family. Colby's parents, Deanna and Stewart, said they're proud of how he's turned something so personal into something the whole community can rally around.

Junge's advocacy reaches beyond the Common. He sits on the committee for the local Walk to End Alzheimer's chapter and has spent the past year lobbying at the Massachusetts Statehouse for Alzheimer's-related legislation — work he believes is making real progress, with the concert as one more piece of that momentum.

The Melodies of Hope concert is free and open to all Aug. 23, 4 to 7:30 p.m., on the North Andover Town Common, with donations accepted on-site. Junge follows it with a comedy fundraiser on Oct. 17 at the North Andover VFW Post, ahead of the Walk to End Alzheimer's in Andover on Oct. 18 at 200 Brickstone Square.