‘Grey matter olympics’: Nerf guns, beer pong and archery

Aged care homes have come together for a ‘grey matter olympics’, pitting seniors against each other in beer pong, a ‘barbie swim sprint’ and shooting (with Nerf guns).

Chris Price from Community Gro with OzCare's Myrna Melville, Tayler Phillips and Norman Irvine.

Aged care homes across Townsville came together to pit senior against senior in what’s being dubbed the “grey matter Olympics”. Eight teams of eight competed in javelin, ‘basketball’, beer bong, a ‘Barbie swim sprint’, archery, and shooting (with Nerf guns). The winning eight-person team was from St Vincent’s Care Douglas.

St Vincent’s Care Douglas leisure and lifestyle assistant Jayne O’Neill said the competition was fantastic for the residents and was enjoyed by all.

“For us, it has been so much fun getting them all stirred up,” Ms O’Neill said.

“When we heard there was a trophy up for grabs we had some outdoor games at our facility and picked out the residents with the strengths we needed.”

Having survived the rigorous selection progress, the eight-man St Vincent’s team then began two months of afternoon training.

The winning team from the 'grey matter olympics' was St Vincent's Care Douglas. They will now carry the shield into next year.

“We practised a lot on hand-eye coordination, and they were turning up for training. It gave them a lot of purpose which was really, really nice,” Ms O’Niell said.

“One of the gentlemen, his doctor actually commended us because there was such an improvement.”

Then it was time for the big showdown - Monday, August 26, at the Murray Sporting Complex.

Medals were up for grabs in each event and St Vincent’s knocked the thong throw javelin out of the park with a 13.5m toss, taking the gold.

Other events included ‘archery’ where players sat in chairs and threw bean bags onto a target on the floor, Nerf gun shooting, ‘basketball’ where players attempted to bounce a ball into a bucket, and a ping pong game which was essentially beer pong.

“We also played the Barbie Swim Sprint which was a lot of fun. Each person got a ribbon with a barbie on the end, and it was laid along a tarp in rows to look like swim lanes. The residents had to roll up the ribbon as fast as they could to get the barbie across the tarp,” Ms O’Neill said.

“It was a really great event and I can’t thank Community Gro enough for all the effort they put into running it.”

The grey matter olympics was organised by Community Gro, and is a Aged Care Volunteer Visitor Scheme initiative.

Originally published as ‘Grey matter olympics’: Nerf guns, beer pong and archery