Wii-ha at health care center

By JUSTIN HARMON/Staff

The need to entertain the residents at Grace Healthcare Nursing Home in Abingdon spawned a curious way for the seniors to alleviate their boredom.
Instead of shuffleboard or bridge, the seniors play a different sort of game. A video game, to be exact.
According to Grace Healthcare Activities Director Violet Campbell, the seniors are always looking forward to picking up the controls to their Wii, the latest videogame console from Nintendo that has been marketed towards people who wouldn’t normally play games.
“I didn’t even know what a Wii was at first, but everyone loves it,” said Campbell.
“I figured they would like it,” said 19 year old Danielle Gensheimer, Campbell’s assistant. “I didn’t know they would like it this much… most of them are better at it than me.”
While Campbell said the men at the nursing home don’t really much care for the Wii, the women absolutely love it.
And the ladies at Grace Healthcare don’t spend much time dallying around with simple minigames aimed at young kids, either. Far from playing the slow paced and simple games that the Wii is trying to cater towards non-gamers, the residents claim their favorite game is boxing.
“It’s a lot like fighting. I like to fight,” said resident Margaret Gentry. “It’s fun and we enjoy it.”
Another resident Ruby Odum said her favorite thing to do was to knock the other boxer to the mat while she’s thinking of someone that has made her mad.
“I just get someone on my mind and I go for it,” she said. “I was doing it yesterday and knocked him down and I almost jumped out of my chair.”
Gentry said she sometimes gets excited about it herself, but it’s all in good fun.
“It brings us all together,” she said.
Though it may seem strange having a next generation gaming system in a nursing home, Campbell assures it’s no oddity. According to her, many nursing homes across the country have one. As a matter of fact, Campbell said she got the idea from an article she read in a magazine.
“Just about everybody has one now,” she said.
Campbell said it’s not only good for the entertainment it brings, but it also gets the seniors active. The Wii uses motion controls instead of standard button presses that were the norm in the gaming industry since Pong came out in the 70’s, allowing players to be a bigger part of the action.
“I know one thing: it loosens you up,” said Gentry.
A bake sale paid for the Wii and the games they have, but Campbell said that since the Wii has become such a big hit, they plan on expanding their gaming library so the action never gets stale.
Justin Harmon can be reached at 628-7101 or