2022 Longevity Fun Run Relay

DC’s Senior Living Communities Participate in 2^nd Annual Longevity Fun Run Relay
Honoring Elders and Staff, and Celebrating Resilience and Strength

In celebration of Older Americans Month, our Home along with ten other DC nursing homes and assisted living communities connected as a community in a city-wide relay run.

This is the second annual DC Longevity Fun Run honoring elders, especially those over the age of 100-years, celebrating the resilience and strength of those who live and work in senior living, reuniting us as a community beyond our walls, and reminding us that we have more in common than that which has kept us apart (the pandemic).

Staff participants from each Home managed the physical part by running one of the eleven relay legs – ranging from .3 miles to 8.2 miles. Upon completing their assigned relay leg, the runners hand-off the baton ¾ emblazoned with the words OLD PEOPLE ARE COOL – to Resident participants, typically centenarians, at each community. The centenarian Residents then hand-off the relay baton to the runner of the next leg, and so on, throughout the District of Columbia.

As the seventh stop along the route, our Residents, staff, and Sisters joined our Home’s centenarian Anne at the front door to dance, sing, and rejoice and to await the arrival of the runners from Carroll Manor 1.2 miles away.

A shout chorus begins as Carroll Manor’s runners, and the race-day spotter on bicycle, make their way up our driveway. After pausing to pass the relay baton to a hugely smiling Anne (our participating centenarian) they join everyone else in partaking of an afternoon ice cream treat and Anne quickly hands-off the baton to our two waiting staff runners, Shelly Kelly, and Joyce Miles. The women depart on their 5.2-mile relay leg – including a section up and along Military Road – flashing victory signs to those gathered to see them off. “I am happy to run for our Home but worry about the distance. We can do it; we can do it!” said Shelly mirroring the encouraging words of all those gathered to see them off.

And so, they did, briskly running the many long inclines, reveling in the downward slopes, all the way to Knollwood and to the cheering Residents and the centenarian awaiting their arrival, to whom they passed the blue relay baton.

The relay celebrates the resilience and strength of those who live and work in senior living like Shelly (medical secretary, and Joyce (activities coordinator) but especially those over the age of one hundred, like two of our Residents Elizabeth and Anne, both of whom will celebrate 104^th birthdays this year. We certainly hope we age their way, which is the theme of this year’s relay. With an average age of 83.50 years, our 70 Residents, including our two centenarians have a lifetime of wisdom to share.

For more about the lives of our two centenarians, see online our August 2018 Newsletter, Volume 11, Issue 2, Page 5 “The Blessing of 100 Years of Life.”

Participating Communities

1. Stoddard Baptist Nursing Home, 1818 Newton St, NW
2. The Marigold Assisted Living, 2905 11th Street, NW
3. Serenity Rehabilitation and Health Center, 1380 Southern Ave, SE
4. Stoddard Baptist Global Care, 2601 18th Street, NE
5. Carroll Manor, 725 Buchanan Street, NE
6. Jeanne Jugan Residence/Little Sisters of the Poor, 4200 Harewood Road, NE
7. Knollwood Life Plan and Retirement Community, 6200 Oregon Ave, NW
8. Forest Side of DC, 2701 Military Ave, NW
9. Lisner Louise Dickson Hurt Home, 5425 Western Avenue, NW
10. Sunrise on Connecticut Avenue, 5111 Connecticut Ave, NW

A special thanks to this year’s relay sponsors:
Forest Hills of DC (FHDC) https://foresthillsdc.org/
Linked Senior https://www.linkedsenior.com/
PositiveAging Sourcebook https://www.retirementlivingsourcebook.com/
The District of Columbia Health Care Association (DCHCA) ( https://www.dchca.org/)