MANCHESTER – Mayor Robert Arace and his confidential aide and senior services liaison Judy Noonan are called upon to do many things in the course of their work for the township. A round of pantyhose bowling is now on their list of accomplishments.
Recently, the mayor and Noonan visited the senior community of Pine Ridge South in Whiting on the occasion of their special athletic event, the Senior Olympics.
The event began with a golf cart parade with a number of golf carts and a few bicycles decorated in red, white and blue heading up to the club house.
Jeanne Petrowski held a plastic torch for the event. She is the longest resident of the development having lived there for over 34 years. “She is our torch bearer,” Master of Ceremonies Rich Rosin said. “This is the first year we tried this little parade. Maybe next year we can get a little bit bigger. “
Rosin added, “we want you all to have fun. We call this the Senior Olympics or sports week here. We just want to have fun here and involve the community.”
The first event was panty hose bowling that involved a pair of pantyhose tied around the waist of the bowler with a tennis ball inside and the idea is to knock down a series of “pins” – empty plastic water bottles.
“We have the balloon toss, we have eight-ball pool, we have table top shuffleboard and shuffleboard out here, we have bocci, cornhole, golf and our last event next Saturday is the walker event. We don’t want to call it a race because you are actually blind folded and someone is behind telling you go right or left around some cones. That was a good event last year,” Rosin said.
A luncheon and medal ceremony was held the following weekend. The ceremony involved more than 70 people and a gift was provided to everyone who came out.
“We appreciate those who signed up,” Rosin said. “This has gotten to be a pretty big event.”
Resident Carol Mascola sang the national anthem before the games started.
