West Virginia Nursing Home Athletes Plan To Travel To Prague
Think getting older and living in a nursing home means giving up on life, sitting back, and just biding time until you die? If so, then you need to meet up with a group of nursing home resident athletes from Cedar Ridge Nursing Home in Sissonville, WV.
The six athletes range in age from the 50's to 80's, use wheelchairs, and you don't want to meet team captain Carol Toliver on the basketball court, challenge any one of them in a game of horseshoes, or try to outrace them in a wheelchair race- they beat the pants off younger staff members in a recent competition. They intend to travel to Prague in the Czech Republic to be the first team to represent the USA in the International Geri Olympics to be held there in October of this year.
For the resident athletes this will be the experience of a lifetime and proof that life doesn't have to end just because you enter a nursing home. The younger resident athletes have a life time ahead of them living in a nursing home with older residents and for them this will be life changing, proving that they don't have to give up competition, living to the fullest, socialization, involvement, fun, freedom, or identity For the older residents it will be just as life changing, proving that being older doesn't mean you have to quit living. For all, they will be the first Team USA to attend the first truly international Geri Olympics, representing the United States, and West Virginia.
An invitation to a silent auction
To help raise the last $3000, a silent auction is planned for 9/1-9/12, and you can check out the items for bidding on this site to see which items you just have to bid on.
Please donate!
If you don't want to bid, but would still like to help sponsor this trip, donations from $5 on up will be accepted.
Volunteers are Welcome
If this sounds like a project you'd like to be involved with, contact Dr. Ted Muilenburg at 304-610-9649 or info@geriolympics.org