As the Beijing Winter Olympics begins, dozens of senior athletes from WhiteStone senior living are competing in a wide range of activities to test their physical endurance and mental abilities.
The Greensboro, North Carolina, retirement community hosted daily events for the Senior Olympic games for the active older adults who call the community home. The events range from floor curling, ping pong, noodle hockey, miniature golf and the ever-popular Wii Sports competition.
“It’s every man for himself,” Patsy Livingston told WXII-TV. “This is a good way to have some fellowship and get back to normal.”
The community has hosted the event in the past and was excited to bring them back in time for this year’s Winter Olympic Games. WhiteStone believes in the importance of seniors staying active and engaged. In fact, studies show seniors who live a physically active lifestyle like the one that is promoted at WhiteStone can experience a reduction in falls and less memory loss and illnesses and may even help seniors live longer and happier lives.
Residents like Jerry Davis say they stay active with the plethora of activities the community provides. “There’s chair yoga on Mondays and Fridays and Tone and Balance on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So, you can say we’re physically fit here at WhiteStone.”
Gina Provost, WhiteStone’s Director of Community Life Services, says her team has been working hard to come up with creative ideas during the pandemic to keep independent senior living residents engaged.
“We’ve had to scale back on a few things because of the pandemic,” she said. “We’re starting to open up and do things where we can get together and play, socially distanced of course, where we can have a lot of fun.”
The community offers a wide range of services and amenities to residents in independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing, rehabilitation and in-home care in Greensboro. You can find a full list of the senior care communities offerings here.
You can see the residents in action as they play ping pong. The story was featured on WXII-TV.