‘It’s very uplifting’: 85-year-old adventure seeker embraces trips organized by Lake Oswego Adult Community Center

As Ellen Beckett prepared to zipline over Pumpkin Ridge Golf Course, one of her trip companions said: “I never thought I’d be doing this at age 79.” Beckett one upped him — she was 85.

Beckett initially had trepidation about ziplining but found it easier traversing backwards and ended up enjoying the thrill.

“I asked: ‘What do I have to go through to get off this?’ The guy went through a big story about what they would have to go through to get me to the ground again. He said ‘Why don’t you try going backward?’ I did it. It was simple,” she said.

Beckett is one of many seniors in the Lake Oswego community who have enjoyed the Adult Community Center’s new adventure program, which along with ziplining has also featured rafting and skydiving excursions. The center added this initiative in 2023 as a way to offer thrills and excitement thought to be infeasible for those entering their twilight years.

“I don’t mind being old,” Beckett said. “If you feel good, that’s even better. Sometimes it scares me but you’re going to go when you’re going to go. I’m closer to it now than I ever was. But I’m still having fun.”

Beckett, a native New Yorker who has lived in Lake Oswego since 1985, said she was relatively sedentary for two years after her husband died. But she was able to garner a new social group and opportunities for adventure through the community center. Now she goes out for lunches at local restaurants, takes local excursions to places like the Portland Art Museum and braves the adventures.

“It’s very uplifting. You know there is something you can do if you want to, (if you) feel like it,” Beckett said of the community center offerings.

Beckett said the Deschutes rapids weren’t that bad, but were enough to get a little wet and laugh. And she enjoyed going out for margaritas afterward. Her family, including six kids and 15 grandkids, got a kick out of the fact that she was going rafting while they were going on a separate, more arduous rafting trip.

“I knew I couldn’t keep up with them for five days but (I said) ‘I’m going rafting too,’” Beckett said.

Nicolette Hume, a recreational specialist for the center, said that Beckett is an inspiration and advocate for what the local community hub has to offer.

“She is someone who is the epitome of what it means to be living your best life later in life,” Hume said. “She doesn’t look at getting older in a negative way. It’s more, rather than looking at what could go wrong, looking at what could go right.”

Adult Community Center manager Maria Bigelow added that the center offers more lowkey trips like to the beach or local museums, as well as opportunities for rock climbing and canoeing, and some overnight adventures to the San Juan Islands and Ashland.

“We try to offer things maybe they wouldn’t be able to do by themselves or don’t have anyone in life to do them with,” Bigelow said. “So far it’s been very successful. Ellen, who had such a great time, is a perfect example of the need for this kind of opportunity for older adults.”

Beckett also complimented the staff at the community center for being accommodating and even picking people up at their homes and dropping them off to and from excursions when needed. She also said the center is in need of more volunteers.

Beckett might skip the skydiving adventure but is excited for others to come.

“There are so many opportunities, whatever you wish to do. It’s just that you have to get yourself out there to do them,” she said.

For more information about the Adult Community Center trips, visit www.ci.oswego.or.us/acc/trips-overnight-adventures.