Senior Fitness Fair Celebrates Living Life About 1,500 Attend Seminars On Life After Retirement

Old age is no excuse to stop living.

Just ask Shirl Shinn.

“You just can’t sit around and have all your body functions go dormant,” he said. “Just because you’re 80 doesn’t mean you quit.”

Shinn and his wife, 78-year-old Mildred, ski and take walks, and continue doing various volunteer work, including teaching English-as-a-second-language classes and helping a non-profit housing agency.

“It seems like we haven’t enough time for all the things we want to do,” Mildred Shinn said.

The Shinns joined about 1,500 people who paid $3 each for two busy days of attending seminars, browsing exhibits and collecting freebies at the second annual Senior Health & Fitness Fair, which ended Thursday night.

The event, presented by the Retired & Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) and sponsored by Qual-Med Health Plan, is aimed at helping senior citizens network and gather information on anything from adult-care housing to funeral services.

It’s also an effort to show people that life goes on after retirement, and that being old is not a bad thing, said Peggy Gross, director of RSVP.

“We need to accept the fact that gray hair isn’t bad,” Gross said.

Gross said many people are more active as seniors than they’ve ever been in their lives.

“They do everything from walking a baby to preparing a meal to knitting a hat,” she said.

Homer Mason, 79, volunteers four to 40 hours a week for a local crisis line. After 34 years of working for a radio station - first as an announcer, later as operations manager - retiring was a difficult transition.

“For a long time, I resisted being called a ‘retired person,”’ Mason said. “It had bad connotations.”

Now Mason said he enjoys retirement because he has a chance to help out in the community.

Some of those in attendance Thursday were thrilled by the fair’s bookfest. Vivian Hackett rummaged through a dozen tables for bargain reading - anything from cook books to romance novels. Each sold for a dime.

“A whole bag for a buck, you can’t beat that,” Hackett said with a smile.

The 61-year-old Hacket attended seminars on writing and cooking healthy for one person. She said she was glad to see a convention specifically for seniors, who are often ignored or treated with disrespect by mainstream society.

Hackett experienced that treatment when she became a widow several years ago.

“People didn’t want to talk to me,” she said.

Gross said that’s exactly why people of all ages should attend events like the senior citizens convention.

“This is a celebration of life. We need to get to the point where we’re not afraid of being old.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: VOLUNTEERS HONORED The following people were honored at the Senior Health & Fitness Fair for volunteer work: Meridith Scott, Olga Underdahl, Alice M. Herbert, Roy Gunderson, Cecil Coleman, Al Henderson, Helen McKenzie, Robert Leibold, O. Kaye Hyer, Dorothy Miller, Jacque Farrell-Flevry, Teri Wallace, C. Thomas Berstch, Diana Scott, Bob Bates, Eugene La Liberte, Judy Killin, Al Kiefer, Leona Anderson, Jean Davidson, and Brenda Jurich.