Getting To Know Your Participants

     Some of the participants in my SilverSneakers Classic classes have been coming for years, others are new.  When seniors come into class, they aren't asked, "What do you do?" or "Where do you work?"  In society, it's usually the first question asked.
     I thought it might be fun to find out what jobs they had held.  I brought a basket with slips of paper and pencils to class.  As they came in the door, I asked them to write down one job they had held.  I instructed them not to write their name and to fold the slip of paper in half and put it back in the basket.
     During the relaxation segment at the end of class, I read the jobs and we guessed who had held it.  If we couldn't guess, they told us.  It was a fun way to get to know everyone a little better!

Happy Fourth of July

This poem puts everything into perspective:

I watched the flag pass by one day.

It fluttered in the breeze.

A young Marine saluted it,

and then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform;

so young, so tall, so proud.

With hair cut square and eyes alert,

he'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him

had fallen through the years.

How many died on foreign soil;

how many mother's tears?

How many pilot's planes shot down?

How many died at sea?

How many foxholes were soldier's graves?

NO, FREEDOM ISN'T FREE!

I heard the sound of Taps one night,

when everything was still.

I listened to the bugler play

And felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times

that Taps had meant "Amen"

when a flag draped a coffin

of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children,

of the mothers and the wives,

of fathers, sons and husbands

with interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard

at the bottom of the sea

of unmarked graves at Arlington

NO, FREEDOM ISN'T FREE!

I hope you enjoy your freedom this weekend and say a prayer for our troops!

Of all the gifts you could give a U.S. Soldier, prayer is the very best one!