Members of the Jackson County Community Educational Outreach Service present a Nintendo Wii to the Ripley Senior Center on Tuesday morning. Top: Bea Lowe, Rosemarie Dubites, and Wilma Jones. Bottom: Mary Patterson, Carolyn Nickelson, Gina Taylor, and Gerry Dunbar.

RIPLEY — The Jackson County Community Educational Outreach Service (CEOS) presented a Nintendo Wii video game console to the Jackson County Multipurpose Senior Center in Ripley on Oct. 28.

The CEOS uses its funds to educate its members and provide volunteer services to the community.
While attending the West Virginia Governor’s Summit on Aging in September and the annual West Virginia CEOS Conference earlier in October, members learned about the importance of exercise for seniors and how the Wii could be used to provide it.

“They found out that seniors benefit from playing the Wii,” said Gerry Dunbar, executive director of the Jackson County Commission on Aging. “I was excited when they told me they would purchase those.”
The Wii makes use of a motion-sensitive controller that allows characters in a game to mimic the gestures of the player.

For example, while playing a tennis game, a player would move the controller in an arc in order to swing the racket displayed on the television screen.

The system comes packaged with “Wii Sports”, a collection of sports games including tennis, baseball, bowling, golf, and boxing.

According to Dunbar, patrons of the senior center don’t have many opportunities for exercise, and the Wii will give them one.

She said that the director of another senior center told her that the Wii had been so successful at their location, a bowling league with 24 teams had been founded there.

“Several of the women here used to be in bowling leagues,” Dunbar said.

The CEOS planned to distribute additional Wii consoles to senior centers in Ravenswood, Sandyville, and Spencer. Money for the systems came from the CEOS general fund as well as Charity Challenge, a grant from the Jackson County Community Foundation.

“We felt like this would be a great way to reach a lot of people,” said Gail Hall, Jackson County CEOS council president. “We felt this would be a community service.”

Gerry Dunbar has requested donations of additional Wii controllers, games, and accessories for the Ripley Senior Center’s new system.

Readers who would like to contribute may call the Jackson County Commission on Aging at (304) 372-2406.

story by Stephen Hill (shill@jccitizen.com)

No related posts.