Let’s get ready for some football!
Our game began with an elder, Mrs. Peggy starting us off with prayer. We were then treated to a stirring rendition of The Star Spangled Banner by our very own Donnie, which he sang in his opera voice.
Game time! Mr. Mincey did our coin toss and the kickoff began. We had our cheerleading section full of elders that each had pompom and megaphones. One of our elders in the cheerleading squad, who had not been coming to activities at all because she’d rather just stay in bed, was very happy, smiling, and cheering both of our teams on.
The Seahawks and the Patriots fought hard for every point they scored. The Therapy Department was a beast against the Nursing Department early on in the first quarter, and scored first with a quick TD pass to go up 6-0, because the extra point attempt failed.
Carl, the quarterback for the Seahawks, answered back with a very nice pass on their very first drive to Nina for a touchdown, followed by the extra point that was good to put Seattle up 7-6!
By the end of the half, both teams scored touchdowns to leave us with a 14-6 score, but there were one or two questionable calls by Donnie, who also acted as our referee, that caused some eyebrows to be raised…
The halftime show was performed by Mrs. Betty, an elder from our Alzheimer’s unit, who (along with Heidi) sang one of her favorite songs, “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” The crowd had a great time singing and acting out parts of the song.
The last half of the game was a hoot! The Therapy Department came out on all cylinders but couldn’t compete with the Seahawks, who scored early in the second half of the game with an interception returned for a TD that put them up 21-13.
In the fourth quarter, our cheerleaders kept yelling “Touchdown, we want a touchdown!” The Seahawks responded by stiffening up on defense and dominating in the second half, only giving up a TD to the Patriots, while scoring on another interception returned for a TD in the fourth quarter to win our Wheel Chair Super Bowl by a score of 28-13!
The MVP of the Game was Carl, the Seahawks QB who also doubled as a Defensive Back, and had both interceptions in the game that were returned for TDs.
Later that afternoon, we were treated to a tailgating party prepared by our very own Chef Joe, who hooked the entire facility up with fried chicken wings, fried potato skins, meatballs, smoked mini wieners, and egg rolls.
All in all it was a wonderful Wheelchair Super Bowl! I love that the Quality of Life department was able to bring all departments together to help in making wonderful memories for our elders.
– Angela Bell, Quality of Life