 Hi, I'm Leslie McVane, welcome to a CTN member highlight. My guests today are from the main senior games, Joe Dill and Noelle St. Haller. Hi, Leslie. Well, you're the executive director of main senior games, and you're on the board. Yes. And have been for a while. A couple of years, yeah. Right. Well, this is one of the annual events that people get really excited about. Tell us where it's going to be this year, and some details about what the games are. Well, it actually starts on June 1. It actually starts May 31 with a luncheon. The national senior games CEO is actually coming to main, which is very exciting, and presenting a personal best award to one of our athletes who just has an incredible story, Jerry LaVassa. So that kicks us off on May 31. And then the very next day we start with our 5K road race at Scarborough. And then it continues. The main senior games isn't just one weekend. It continues throughout the entire summer on different days, summer on the weekday, summer on weekends, all the way through to October 5. So there's about 21 different days of events with about 17 different sports. Wow. Now, do people have to sign out up for this whole summer long event thing now? No, they don't have to do it now. It always makes it easier if people sign up early. But if your event is in September, most people don't sign up until July or August. But you can register on site. It makes it a little more difficult for us. But you can register on site. And the reason we do that is if someone's injured and they're nursing an ankle or an arm or something back and then they decide they can compete, we do it that way. But yes, you can go on our website and register. And it's not a closed event at all. It is not. It's an open event. Yes, it is. It's for anyone 45 and over and out-of-state people are welcome as well. Really? Yes. Oh, nice. We have about 30% of the participants are from out-of-state. And as far away as I've got someone just signed up today from New York, so they come from everywhere. That's exciting. And what are the events that people can sign up for? Well, I'm not sure I can remember them all, but there's archery and bowling, both candle pin and 10-pin bowling. There is cycling. There's team basketball for men and for women. Men's softball. Racquetball. There is tennis. There is table tennis. There is swimming. There is pickleball. I just found out about that the other time. 5K road race, 10K road race, triathlon. So I hope I've. I think you did. Horseshoes, maybe? Horseshoes. And in archery. Everybody lives in archery, yeah. Horseshoes, yeah. So there's 17 different sports. And the event sites are throughout the area. Yes, they are. The furthest south is in Kennebunkport. That's the cycling. And then archery is up in Northeameth at an archery. So it's all southern Maine. Pretty much, pretty much southern Maine, yes. And will the cycling be a distance thing, or will it be around a track? No, it's distances. They have two time trials, which are five and 10, and it's all on time. So you go one at a time, and you're not competing. You are competing against everybody else, but you're not cycling at the same time. The 20K and the 40K is not a track. It's on the road. But you all go together. Now, our athletes here in Maine, anyway. I don't know about the ones coming from out of state. But they're not just someone who just decides to go out and do this. You've got serious athletes who participate year after year in the Maine senior games. We do. We have what we call the elite athletes. You think of the elite athletes as someone in their 20s and they're the basketball superstar. But we have elite athletes. We just had a gentleman come back from Nationals, and he won seven medals and broke two national records. And he's in his 70s. So he's an elite athlete for his age group. And we do have those people that just come in and want to try it for the first time, and they get hooked. And it's more about for those people that aren't elite, just to be able to have fun, be able to come out, have fun with their friends, be able to see people that maybe they don't see throughout the year, but they can see during the games. And Joe had started to mention we have the 5K on June 1st. And we also have Explore, Track, and Field Day, the same day immediately following the 5K. We're going to have opening ceremonies because, again, Nationals is going to be here, which is a big deal for us. So we're hoping that we get a lot of folks that maybe don't know about Maine senior games to be able to come out, Explore, Track, and Field. It's not a competition. So they can literally just talk with coaches, try out different sports, and see if it's anything that they would like to do. And the more people who know about it from out of state might plan their summer vacation to come here and be part of the games. And they do. A lot of them do. Many of the out of state folks have a tie to Maine, whether it's they went to summer camp here, their daughters in college, or whatever. Most of them have some kind of tie to Maine, which is really nice, really nice. And as you said, the idea that someone may not be an athlete, but just wants to challenge themself at a certain time in their life where they maybe haven't done this before. This is a great opportunity to get out there. Absolutely. To have the benefits of being healthy and being fit, not only can it be fun, but it can help you not only just with any sort of medical issues that you may have as you're getting older, but also brain health that helps you when you exercise. I think a lot of times we used to think about it just sort of your exercise to lose weight. And we want people to think about it as they get older to continue to stay fit. It's a way of life. It's a lifestyle. And this is Maine Senior Games. It's just a vehicle that they can do that. And not to let your ailments or injuries get the better of you and realize that there is a light at the end of the tunnel that you can keep going. Right, yeah. I think it's great. So what are some of the most popular events that you have? Men's and women's basketball are extremely popular. We have quite a few teams and a lot of out-of-state teams. And track and field is extremely popular. And believe it or not, Candlepin bowling is one of the biggest ones. When I first started out, we had like seven competitors. And I think last year we had like 48. It's getting hot for all ages. It's one of those. It's moving. And then a great way to get into it is to volunteer first. And then you find yourself, wow, I can do this. You hate sitting on the sidelines. You want to get in there and be part of that. So how do people get involved? How do they sign up? Can anyone come to the luncheon with the national representative here? Yes, absolutely. Tell us what we can do. They can call me at 396-6519. Or to find out more information about the games, our website is www.mainthestate, M-A-I-N-E, S-R, games.org. Terrific. Well, thank you. I hope it's the biggest turnout ever. And I'm recovering from knee replacement and won't be doing it this year. But I'm getting back in the swing next year. So maybe next year. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.