Heights Silver Sneakers step up to senior Olympics
Heights Silver Sneakers step up to senior Olympics
Dayton Daily News
By Beth Anspach, Contributing Writer
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Rubeye Trink-haus is 88 years old, but she doesnt let her age slow her down.
Rubeyes is a great story, said Jim Bauman, who started as a member of the Huber Heights Silver Sneakers class and now teaches the class of several hundred seniors. When she started with the Silver Sneakers several months ago, she could hardly walk one lap around the gym. Now she does a mile easily. Socially, she is much brighter and aware these days.
And Rubeye isnt alone. According to Josh Sullenberger, executive director of the Huber Heights YMCA, the Silver Sneakers group has 689 members and the Y offers activities for them five days per week.
And because so many seniors are becoming more active, for the first time this year, the YMCA of Greater Dayton, which includes 11 locations, held a senior Olympics in September.
The event was hosted by the Huber Heights YMCA and included a team of 30 from Huber Heights and a total of 140 participants. Almost 5,000 seniors are Silver Sneakers members, said Sullenburger. And all were invited to participate.
According to Sullenberger, the Olympics idea was an attempt to engage seniors in a structured activity and increase their Y usage over the summer months. We offered regular training sessions and we had them set goals, said Sullenburger. We had everything from strength training to cardiovascular training to stretching to water aerobics. They also had the ability to practice their events, which included running, volleyball, corn toss, swimming and even Texas Holdem.
Ron Spieles won the first place ribbon for Texas Holdem and called the Senior Olympics Competitive but a lot of fun. I met a lot of new people and events like this helps keep us young.
Another participant, Tim Mahaffey, who has worked at the Y as a lifeguard for the past five years, has remained consistently active into his 60s, running marathons and participating in triathlons. I stay fit because I want to lengthen my life. My medical bills are lower and I dont want to be a burden to society or my family as I grow older, he said.
But most inspirational to Mahaffey and the rest of the team were members like Trinkhaus and Ray Austerman, a 74-year-old member of the Kleptz Y who came in second behind Mahaffey in the one-mile run/walk. To see him run at his age and still be competitive, and to see Rubeye participate is an encouragement to everyone.
And in the end, the Huber Heights team placed first in the two-day event, scoring a total of 1,650 points. And Trinkhaus won the spirit award for the branch.
When I first started this I felt kind of strange because of my age, said Trinkhaus. But everyone is so friendly and made me feel like I could do it. I have a pacemaker and always think about my heart stopping so thats why I know I have to be active and thats why I push myself.