Active Aging Week Culminates with Walk Along Savannah River

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (September 28, 2016)—October 1 will be a milestone in this year’s Active Aging Week in more ways than one. Besides being the final day of the 2016 event (that began in 2003) hosted by the International Council on Active Aging (ICAA), it also happens to fall precisely on the 15th anniversary of ICAA’s inception.

To celebrate, ICAA will be featured in a gala event organized by one of its long-term Active Aging Week partners, Aegies Therapies. More than 1000 people are expected to gather at the Augusta Market in Augusta, Georgia for a very special Walk! With Aegis Therapies stroll along the Savannah River, hosted by Aegis Therapies, EnerG by Aegis and event co-hosts The Family YMCA of Greater Augusta and University Hospital.

Dignitaries will include United States Congressman Rick Allen (R-GA), Aegis Therapies’ CEO Martha Schram and ICAA founder and CEO Colin Milner, and will begin with welcome speeches by these and by Staci Brandt of Nestlé Skin Health. A Walk! with Aegis Therapies team will then warm up the crowd for a walk along the Savannah River, with Boy Scouts and others standing by to lend a hand along the one-mile and three-mile courses.

The event will feature a marching band, military demonstration, prizes, T-shirts, lunch and a cook-off with Aegis’s “celebrity chef” Chef Darrin, and will round out thousands of other Active Aging Week events across the U.S., Canada, Australia and India held over seven days beginning September 25.

“What better way for ICAA to celebrate 15 years than with partners and friends?” says Milner.

“It took a while for the concept of active aging to catch on. When we came up with it, only a few people embraced it. Most still had ill-founded perceptions of what older adults could do. A few months later the World Health Organization launched a global initiative around active aging, and before long it went mainstream. Today the term active aging is used everywhere. We have come a long way in our attitudes about realizing the potential within each and every one of us, regardless of age.”

More than 3,000 organizations will be hosting Active Aging Week events this year: cities including San Jose, California; Greenbelt, Maryland; and Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, as well as retirement communities, CCRC’s, therapy providers, assisted living and long-term care communities, corporate wellness centers, libraries, fitness clubs, community centers, hospital wellness centers, YMCAs, JCCs and others. Events ranging from walks and dances to games, fitness classes, health fairs and social gatherings will touch on all dimensions of wellness—emotional, vocational, physical, spiritual, intellectual, social and environmental.

Active Aging Week partners include Abbott Nutrition, Aegis Therapies and EnerG by Aegis, Caption Call, Nestle Skin Health, SwimEx and The President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition.

Registration for the Augusta walk begins on-site at 9 a.m. October 1, with events kicking off at 10 a.m. at:
The Augusta Market
15 8th Street
Augusta, GA 30901
theaugustamarket.com

Visit activeagingweek.com and icaa.cc for more information.