ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 With eight weeks left in hurricane season, a Central Florida group is raising awareness and heart rates to help keep seniors safe and healthy.<\/p>\n
Dozens of seniors packed the Wayne Densch YMCA this week for a little fun and fitness.<\/p>\n
Justin Higa, vice president of operations for the YMCA of Central Florida, said reaching out to older members is a priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just an opportunity to really offer and highlight healthy living for seniors in our community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Orlando area YMCAs and the Senior Resource Alliance hosted their third annual Healthy Seniors Day, offering workshops and group exercises.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really try to focus on being another connection point for our members that are coming in. So really, to find meaningful connection, to bond with their staff, to connect them to other members that are coming in as well, and to also other resources in the community,\u201d Higa explained.<\/p>\n
Members like Barbara Danzy.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, when these bodies get a certain age, they start talking to you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The 75-year-old retired UPS worker found connection at the Orlando YMCA.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t keep up. When I first started, I was out of breath. But I kept going, and I got stronger and stronger,\u201d Danzy said.<\/p>\n
Attendees also received free emergency preparedness kits.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a power pack, a mini-fan, emergency supplies and shelf-stable meals,\u201d Karla Radka, president and CEO of Senior Resource Alliance, said as she showed attendees.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeniors have hard times, sometimes evacuating during natural disasters. They have survived storms in the past. They don\u2019t want to leave the comfort of their homes or their pets. And also, it can take an extra effort to move seniors outside of their own home because of equipment that they may have,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
An annual event promoting emergency preparedness and exercise.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should never stop moving, no matter what age you are,\u201d Higa said.<\/p>\n
Danzy encouraged seniors to \u201ckeep it movin\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n
The YMCA of Central Florida has 15 locations and offers numerous exercise programs for all fitness levels including Silver Sneakers and Zumba.<\/p>\n
A number of programs may be covered by your insurance provider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 With eight weeks left in hurricane season, a Central Florida group is raising awareness and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[122473,767,3948,6466,274,770,571,2204,115,1053,1335,768,139,141,140,278,2032,835],"class_list":["post-424891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-adrianne-flores","tag-app-community","tag-app-health","tag-app-latest-health-stories","tag-app-top-stories","tag-community-news","tag-health","tag-instagram-n13","tag-news","tag-orange","tag-orange-county","tag-orange-county-fl","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-top-stories","tag-trending-topics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}