Living a stagnant life is not the norm for senior citizens at the Westerville Senior Center. Laura Horton has serves as center manager and keeps busy with the wide range of activities and classes to say the least.
“Seniors here stay pretty active and are always out and about. They don’t like being sedentary,” Horton says. “They are all still young at heart and want to keep going and socialize.”
With daily classes like line dancing, Zumba, yoga, balance boost, and bands and bells, there is no shortage of ways to stay moving. Throughout the year, the Westerville Senior Center offers more than 750 classes to its 2,377 members. In 2020, it will find a new home at the Westerville Community Center.
Aside from classes and activities at the center, members of the Buckeye Bounders participate in day trips to go hike the parks around Columbus.
“Everyone is looking forward to the expansion,” Horton says. “It’ll allow us to offer additional programming and utilize other areas of the Community Center. Everything will finally be under one roof.”
The Senior Games
For those of the competitive nature, Westerville has recently played host to the 2019 Ohio Senior Olympics state games. More than 500 athletes came out to compete in events such as track and field, pickleball, swimming, three on three basketball, archery, and more.
“It’s amazing to see how many different events people want to participate in,” Horton says. “You’d think people would only sign up for one or two, but we had people doing upwards of five to six events.”
The events were open to people 50 and older and top finishers in each event qualified for the National Senior Games, which will take place in 2021.
More than 13,712 athletes competed in the national event this year held in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Forming New Relationships
While physical activity is a necessity in staying well through old age, the Westerville community provides a buzzing social environment for seniors and a large portion of members take advantage of that through volunteering. The members are a constant presence throughout the community at all major events; Horton says it’s a point of pride amongst the seniors.
“They are volunteering so much because they want to give back to the community and volunteering helps them stay active and engaged,” Horton says. “They enjoy the interaction with people and seeing how happy the event or program makes the participants feel.”
Age is just a number:
Did you know the oldest person to ever climb Mount Everest was 80 years old? Yuichiro Miura overcame a number of heart issues, fractured bones and defied all expectations as he reached the top in May of 2013.
While you may continue to grow old, that never should stop you from pursuing your dreams.
Here are three unbelievable seniors who set Guinness World Records:
- Betty Goedhart was 84 years old when she broke the world record to become the oldest performing flying trapeze artist. She didn’t become a flyer until the age of 78.
- 100 years old and still dancing, Tao Porchon-Lynch was recognized as the oldest competitive ballroom dancer.
- Mark Sertich was 96 years old during his play at the Snoopy’s Senior World Hockey Tournament. He recalls never fully taking the sport seriously until he turned 80!
Rocco Falleti is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at rfalleti@cityscenecolumbus.com
