Bernadette Desaurniers has participated in the Northwest Senior Games for at least the last 20 years. Now in her 80s, she still drives to Thunder Bay from Longlac for the love of the games.
“I love competition; I love being here,” she said. “I love coming here every year. I just love competition; I love the people.”
Desaurniers was one of about 40 people in the euchre event for the 2010 Northwest Senior Games at the 55 Plus Centre on River Street Monday morning. Events ranging from bowling, bocce and snooker are scheduled throughout the city this week.
In addition to euchre, Desaurniers is readying her cribbage game for Wednesday night; she feels the games are a great way to get out and enjoy herself while satisfying her competitive spirit.
“I like sports; I like everything like that, so to me it suits me,” she said. “But I guess not everybody is the same.”
She added many seniors are not active enough and Northwest Games rep Ken Simard said his goal is to get as many people as possible participating.
The senior games are about getting those older than 55 out and active.
“I tend to think (the games are) competitive but it’s more socializing and having a good time, getting people off the couch from in front of the TVs to enjoy themselves and meet other people,” Simard said.
He believes the games have been happening for at least 25 years and said they have a variety of events for everyone to try.
“There’s euchre, golfing and so on; you name it,” he said, adding they see around 200 people come out every year for the games.
There are no qualifications for entering the games, just register, choose which games you’d like to play and have a good time.
“There’s a lot of seniors out there that are single; they’ve lost their spouses and so on,” Simard said. “They’re afraid to get out because they don’t blend with other people so we invite them to start in the games.”
The winner of each event will go on to compete provincially in Oshawa later this summer. Simard said about 30 people went to the Ontario competition last time.
