By AMY DAVIS
The Progress
Mesquite Senior Games is on a mission to promote the health and fitness of anyone 50 years and better while stimulating tourism in the city. They offer a host of different activities for every level of fitness.
Events include pickleball, softball, a bike race and track and field. They also host more sedate activities like poker, bridge and a history tour for those who may not be ready for athletics.
Unfortunately many of their activities during their usually busy spring season were put on hold due to the shutdown caused by COVID-19. Both committee and participants were devastated.
“Our events started on March 5 and we shut down on March 15,” Director Amy Bradshaw said. “So you can see what that did to our program. We only got one big event done and that was pickleball.”
Bradshaw said that the group made the choice to shutdown for the health and safety of their participants. “A lot of them come from out of town as well, and we were concerned about everyone’s health,” she said. “It was literally eight hours later when the governor shut everything down. It was disappointing to say the least.”
As restrictions began to ease up and Nevada began to enter Phase I, the Senior Games Board came up with a virtual way to work out and be active together. They call it, “Back Together!” A walk, run or biking distance event designed to be done anywhere.
“It is all honor system,” Bradshaw said. “Just tell us what you did.”
Board Member Ruby Sviontek explained the program. “The idea was for someone here that maybe had grandkids in Illinois for example to do this with them,” she said. “We want to get families involved with each other. We have actually had a lot of out of towners participate. We really want this to go all summer, we are just saying do it in a 30-day period.”
Registration fees for the virtual event start at $25. The fee includes a 2020 Mesquite Senior Games Official T-Shirt, keepsake pin, racing bib, medal and certificate of completion. Five dollars of every registration fee are donated to the Recreation Center in Mesquite.
“All in Cycles, the bike shop here in town, is our drop off location,” Bradshaw said. “When people sign up, I take the t-shirts and all the goodies to the bike shop and then folks can go in there and pick them up (and check out the shop too!). We mailed the items to the out of towners.”
Board member Sandy Tudor explained the effect of the pandemic shutdown on the program.
“You know when we had to shut down, we had to refund about one third to one half of the participants,” she said.
There were 531 registrants nationwide.
“It was crippling to our funds,” she added. “We have a storage container with 1400 shirts with 2020 printed on them. There were also some generous people who simply donated their registration fees to the cause and that helped. Those people who donated their fees can come pick up a free t-shirt on June 23-25..”
The Mesquite Senior Games will host a fundraising event at the Rec Center June 23-25 from 9-11 a.m. They will be selling shirts for $10 each as well as other merchandise.
The Back Together fitness event will continue all summer long. Register at www.mesquiteseniorgames.org to get the family involved.
