Rec Dept. to host Senior Games Sept. 28

Over the course of the past year, Carroll County has put in a new splash pad and announced plans to build a new swimming pool at the Carroll County Recreation Department. With the abundance of new additions aimed at the county’s youth, the Carroll County Recreation Department is making sure the county’s senior citizens also have recreation opportunities with the announcement of Senior Games, a one-day, four-event competition for citizens ages 55 and older.

The Senior Games will take place Saturday, September 28 at Woodlawn School. Registration forms are available at the Carroll County Recreation Department, located at 129 Ball Park Drive in Hillsville. The four events that will be held during the Senior Games are frisbee throw, a game of Horse (basketball), free throw competition and pickleball. Cost to participate is $5 per event or $20 for all four events. Carroll County Recreation Director Kurt Thiele said the event will start at approximately 9 a.m. on Sept. 28 and run through the early part of the afternoon that day, depending on the number of participants. Each participant will receive a t-shirt.

“The hope is we will start small with our events that we are going to offer with the hope of expanding that into future years the more times we do it,” Thiele said, noting Joe Terry was instrumental in getting the Senior Games started along with the rest of the county’s recreation commission board. “We are really supportive of all age groups in Carroll County and we really want to provide another program that goes across a wide range of age groups and demographics. That is where the inspiration came from. Joe obviously has a passion for that and we are supportive of Joe. As far as the rec department, we are supportive of our entire Carroll community. We don’t want to just offer youth programs. We want to offer adult programs as well.”

Thiele said age brackets for the Senior Games would be broken down into the following groups: ages 55-65, 66-75, 76-85, and 85 and over. He noted the rec department already has several sponsors from around the local community sponsoring the event.

“We would encourage folks to call us here at 276-730-3191 to ask us questions about the program, if they have any interest in participation,” Thiele said. “We would also encourage local businesses if they would like to have a sponsorship as part of the program to be involved, give us a call, ask us questions about how you can be a sponsor for the program.”

Allen Worrell can be reached at (276) 779-4062 or on X@AWorrellTCN