Staying active and social are the keys to staying physically and mentally healthy into your later years. Paula Hader joins me this week to talk about Senior Citizens Activities, Inc. and their upcoming Fun & Fit Games for 50+ers event, which is coming up starting May 20th through June 7th, 2024.

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This show is about positive things happening in and around Washington County, and this week we feature an organization that is doing a lot of positive things around Washington County for those who are 50 plus. Paula Hader, the executive director for Senior Citizens Activities, Inc., joins me this week to talk about their organization, their mission, who they serve, and their upcoming fun and fit games for 50 Plusers event, which is coming up in May.

With that, here are 15 minutes on Senior Citizens Activities, Inc. With Paula Hader on Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.

Paula, thank you for joining me today. I appreciate you coming to the studio.

We were incorporated and it was as a result of Nancy Merring, who was President of the Junior Women's Club at that time and her and her other friends in the community had noticed that there was a need for seniors and something for them to do. And so it was because of her inspiration and her wisdom and her leadership that we came to be.

No longer in existence and we were fortunate from the history I understand is that, uh, the county didn't charge us anything for the space over there and they actually printed our newsletters for us besides. So that was a nice plus.

is from kind of that, I forgot how you put it in the email, but really to, to become more for those who are active, right? So, can you tell me? What is your mission and who are you aiming to accommodate in the community?

Tell us about that. You hadn't. Yes. How many people attended your activities?

We're, you know, we're dealing with Arts and souls and human beings, not something, like pieces of paper we're pushing around or whatever. So it's, it takes that extra special touch when people come to be able to have conversations with them and meaningful conversations.

It's, it's meant for people who are, you know, wanting to stay social and fit in the community and things like that. Or is that, that's, am I right in saying that?

And I think that's what made the huge difference as we built on that and gave us a window to expand and to grow. And so, That's, that's huge. But what we're, we are looking for people to join us who are happy and healthy and independent. For example, those folks coming off of, retirement, whether it's forced or chosen, they're just looking to reinvent their life.

And, they're just not some, they're not all. Just don't know where to go, what to do, how to get engaged, how to get involved. And so we offer basically all levels of getting involvement and to the level that they want. But I always encourage folks to just come on in, check us out, see what we got. And, it, it all seems to go from there.

It's so much more in that respect. And also, some of these tabletop games is, Mahjong, which is really supposed to be, you know, West Bend, Kewaskum, Slinger, Noelle Braun, West Bend, Kewaskum, Slinger, Noelle Braun, We also have a floor yoga for the folks who still want to get down on the floor and can get up and do that.

We have pickleball, we have ping pong, we have so much going on, a big, I mean so much of it is popular, the pickleball of course, but the line dancing. Has been incredible. The amount of people wanting to line dance and our ladies who instruct are so very good that on a Friday morning, they'll tell people, Hey, come 15 minutes ahead of time, we're happy to work with you just to get you comfortable so you can join in with the class, do a little bit of a refresher here or there as well.

So it was, it was really cool to see.

Yes. How involved with that they were. And that's all through the senior citizen's activities, right?

I can't do anything anymore. Well, he really got involved here at the center doing, you know, YMCA led classes, this and that. He's got involved in chair yoga and floor yoga, and he's just, he's been such a model to people of. What can be when you think, just when you think, I can't even ride a bike anymore.

He's doing that now and he's, he's built up his balance and his health and to me he's always been so inspirational. That really thought, you know, way back when he thought he had to just hang it up. And so,

And then he came to the point where he realized, yeah, you're right. You know, I don't need to, do everything. It's finding the balance, which is what we also stress. You know, make sure you have balance in the social life, physical, all those things that we need to keep that balance going on.

So. You have an upcoming event for Senior Citizens Activities. It's called Fun and Fit Games for 50 plussers. Can you tell us about the event, because it sounds like a lot of fun, and it sounds like you've got a lot of different things planned for this.

It's our first time ever, I believe, in Washington County that this is happening, and so we are, it's a two, it's a three week, excuse me, three week long event from May 20th to June 7th, and we're having all kinds of activities that people within the community, you do not have to be a participant, it's you can come from far and wide.

Again, we are all inclusive. We don't exclude other counties, but there's going to be opportunities for people to, uh, play pickleball. Whether on their own or at a structured place, uh, there's gonna be a swimming relay, a sheepshed tournament, of course, have to have that. A cornhole is gonna be over at Kingpin Bowling, disc golf, bowling, mahjong, ping pong.

Some of those things are gonna be held at our, Center as well. But the idea is people sign up, they get themselves a t shirt, a swag bag, and they also get a wonderful, fun looking scorecard. So we're going to be looking to them to be honest on their scorecard.

So, I put my plea out to the West Bend Chamber with their leadership group, and we presented our project as something some of the leaders could grab and run with. And so they joined forces with us, and its gonna happen.

Right? So. Yes.

I'm really excited, and then I'm also on the AARP Steering Committee here, now that West Bend is AARP affiliated, and our committee had agreed to carry the torch, if you will, moving forward, uh, because this is a lot for our community. One employee and a halftime employee to pull off every year. So we're looking forward to getting that extra support and we think a lot more people are going to jump in the ring and help us make it bigger and better all the time.

So I look forward to the year when I can hear that West Bend is in it for 28 years.

Simply come to the Senior Center, and we're located, by the way, across the parking lot from Steingarden Center, right within Kettlebrook Church, and we have sign up sheets there, and basically you pay 10, which is going to entitle you to a size of, your size of a t shirt, which has got the logo on it, as well as a swag bag, and then also your scorecard.

People can go to our website. West Seniorcitizensactivities. org and also find a form they could download and send and mail in and that. There's different ways, probably on Facebook there's something as well. The other one I would say is that evening of, so Monday, May 20th. If people, it says the games, opens up at five o'clock.

Really, we'll have tables there to take late registrations, and that's when people would get their additional items as well. And right then and there that night, there's a 5k walk and run. So either way, they're off and running, whatever works, we're happy to help them get started.

We've got, mini golf and golf happening. People can go to West Bend Lakes or to, now that it's called Stingers, I'm looking forward to going there as well. Pickleball, that's off site at Kwas Creek. We do have some things going on right at our Senior Center, obviously, to bring people in to see if they like what's going on.

They're going to be, playing Mahjong. We're going to have some ping pong going on, as well as some dominoes, serious dominoes.

Do they get involved with that? Is there a cost to it? How do they sign up?

Who to call for your emergency contact should something happen to you. It's that simple to sign up. And so once we get that information, we input you in our system. No, no participant fees. Well, I shouldn't say that. No membership fees, excuse me, but participants pay. We're on a pay as you go system. And so that works really well.

If somebody just wants to come and play their sheep's head, it's two bucks for every time they pay. And then the various classes and other things, you know, depending on supplies for classes.

There's so many things to do out there, but is it affordable? And that's where we really want to ring true because we want to serve those people who are on fixed incomes and have situations where they just don't have All the money in the world to go do what they want to do.

org. Yes. Right?

So watch out, y'all. That said, I, I haven't played Sheapshead since college, and I lost horribly to Noelle Isley. Every year in college, when playing sheep's head, he was, I think he was cheating. If you ever have an idea for the show, reach out. FifteenWithFuzz at gmail. com. Spell out the word fifteen.

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And with that, we'll talk to you next Tuesday, right here on Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.