This is how we, at Support Elders, celebrated this special day.
Even at 7 o’clock that morning, it was rather hot and humid. But the date was 1st October 2015, the International Day of Older persons, and the sultry weather could not deter our members and other proactive elderly citizens from participating in the Support Elders Walkathon 2015.
Dr Indrani Chakravarty of Calcutta Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology (CMIG) gave the key note speech, while Mr Debashish Sen, Principal Secretary, Urban Development Department, Government of West Bengal, flagged off the walk. Armed with bottles of water and an ambulance following, should a medical emergency arise, over 250 enthusiastic participants set off on the walkathon from City Centre, Salt Lake. It was encouraging and exciting to see the spirit with which the motley crowd of NCC cadets; members of various NGOs like CMIG, Dignity Foundation, Salt Lake Senior Citizens Association and Remedia Foundation; corporate participants like The South Indian Bank, ATCIS Technologies and Columbia Asia; and Support Elders Members and Staff set off to spread awareness about enhancing the Quality of Life of the elders in the city.
It was a pleasure to see how much the elders had enjoyed participating in the walkathon. And though we gifted mementoes to everyone who completed the Walkathon, we received the biggest award when, one of our members, Mrs Ratna Sen, later told us that participating in the Walkathon had really bolstered her confidence in her abilities, which had slightly flagged since her last knee operation. That was our take away from this day!
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