By Laura Drinan
Hometown Weekly Reporter
In August, 93-year-old Ora McGuire conceived and idea to challenge her fellow seniors. As a part of the Walpole Council on Aging’s Creative Corner program, Ora devised the “Mind Over Matter Olympics,” which would test the seniors’ abilities to solve brain puzzles.
From August to December, Ora organized five different games for the seniors to play each month. She included a word search, connect the dots, crossword puzzles, Wheel of Fortune, and rebus puzzles to solve, and she kept track of the winners of each game.
“My feeling is that we all exercise, we all practice our spirit, and we need to practice our minds. It goes three ways,” said Ora. “And then, as I always say, then we fly.”
On January 31, Patrick Shield, Director of Walpole Recreation, carried the torch (literally) to the senior center for the awards ceremony. Acting as the master of ceremonies, Shield marched into the center with a torch made of construction paper as the Olympics fanfare played.
After awarding gold, silver, and bronze medals to eight seniors, the “Mind Over Matter” Olympians celebrated with light refreshments and good company.
This was the conclusion of the first ever “Mind Over Matter Olympics,” but Ora hopes to host one each year. Already, she is looking for ways to improve the program and get more seniors involved. She’s considering ways to provide an intergenerational activity and toying with idea of offering prizes in addition to the medals.
While the possibilities for the games are endless, the seniors are confident that Ora will make the perfect adjustments for the next one.
As one participant thanked Ora for the ceremony and all of her work in the past few months, she tugged on the medals hanging from her neck and joked, “I’m going to wear these to bed.”
“I feel like a Pied Piper,” Ora said. “For these people to come and not think it’s dumb… I’ll tell you: It’s so hard to get old people to believe in different.”
While the awards ceremony may have been silly, it brought the seniors smiles and laughter, and it simply gave the seniors a reason to get out of the house.
