Cheerleaders, bands and flag squads marched through Rosewood Senior Living Community in Bakersfield, Calif., on October 6, heralding the start of the 5th Annual Kern County Senior Games.
Rosewood resident Wendall Kenney, 93, waved from an antique car as king of the event, while another car held the parade’s queen, Maggie Close, 102, who lives nearby. The Rosewood Rockers performed a dance routine, and cheerleaders spelled out the name of the community. The rousing parade set the tone for a day of athletic endeavor and friendly rivalry at the largest senior event in Kern County.
The Kern County Activities Directors Association sponsors the yearly competition, at which athletes aged 60 or better compete individually and in teams at volleyball, golf, a softball toss, horseshoes, a mile walk, Wii bowling and other events.
Rosewood residents and team members organize the games and volunteer on game day to welcome participants, provide transportation, keep score and serve the free lunch the community provides. Last May, the nonprofit organization Aging Services of California honored Rosewood with a Community Service Award for making the event a county-wide celebration of vitality and well-being.
“The general feeling is that it’s a lot of fun,” says Camille Gavin, 79. “It certainly is for me.”
In the four years she has lived at Rosewood, Gavin has volunteered with team members and neighbors there to help plan the games. This year, she and four student athletes from California State University at Bakersfield ran the softball toss and she says she thoroughly enjoyed the collaboration. “I was so impressed with them. The students were so encouraging to the older people.”
Sharon Varner, Rosewood’s director of leisure services, leads the annual effort to bring the games about. Athletes came from 10 local retirement communities, churches and other organizations, and nursing students and other college and high school students volunteer ahead of the games and on game day. This year, about 800 people attended, and the games raised $4,000 for local low-income seniors and the alzheimer’s Disease Association of Kern County.
Gavin says people get a kick out of taking part.
“It’s energizing and inspiring too,” she said. “I’m thinking of a woman with a walker who made it across the lawn to do the softball toss and the horseshoes. I’m pretty mobile, and I was really impressed. I was thinking, ‘Look at her—I’m better off physically than she is, and look what she’s doing.'"
“And there’s always joy when Rosewood wins,” she says. Several dozen athletes made up the home team this year, and together they took home more gold, silver and bronze medals than any other group. The community as a whole has a tangible reminder of that achievement—a trophy for best overall performance that now sits in their Fireside Room.
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This article appeared in the November 2011 issue of ABHOW Words.
