Local programing on KRWG Public Media made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.

This is Fronteras, a changing America.

I'm KC Counts.

Thank you for joining us for a brand new season.

And our first episode for 2026.

It's never too late to make resolutions for the new year.

Staying active and engaged is important at any age, but even mor so as we enter our senior year.

According t the National Institute on Aging.

Participating in social activities can help maintain well-being and independence and even lessen the chances of developing certain diseases like dementia, heart disease, and stroke.

The City of Las Cruces offer a variety of options for social and physical activity, and an array of services to hel seniors stay healthy and well.

Senior programs Recreation facility manager for the City of Las Cruces, Chris Behrens, is here to talk about that array of options.

And later in the program we'll introduce you to a program that connects veterans through golf.

But we begin with the New Mexico Senior Olympics, which celebrated its 44th annual game over the summer in Las Cruces.

Senior TV producer Courtney Hill introduces us to athletes from across the state who came together to celebrate competition and camaraderie and go for the gold.

In the senior Olympics.

I'm really an air gu competitor, but, cornhole here.

I've been competing in cornhole for the last four years.

It hit the nai on the head of the camaraderie, and the competition.

It's no fun to shoot alon or throw beanbags by yourself.

But if you have good competition, that makes life worth while.

When you get up in the 85 to 89 age group, they start dropping off.

I have to tell my competition.

Don't die.

Go baby, go.

Oh, I've been competing in senior Olympics about, five years.

It was really from, my younger days that I was shooting pool, and they offered this for senior Olympics.

And of course, I'm going to jump on it.

And, I'm enjoying myself having fun and meet new people from the senior category.

Oh, it's always fun.

I meet new people, making jokes, shoot.

cheering them on under shot.

being competitive.

Bankshot.

Well, just before COVID hit, I started, picked up Taichi again and started studying it.

I think I been studying with Doug since the summer of 21.

The sword form that I just did, I've been working on for about a year now.

It's a competition.

There isn't much in the wa of competitions in New Mexico.

The senior Olympics.

This is kind of the only thing available in New Mexico at the moment.

It's good to, just meet all the people here and, you know, see different styles.

I hope to keep doing it.

I hope we have more competition here in New Mexico.

This event has been around for 44 years.

And, this is probably our 25th year to host it here in Las Cruces, but we have just under 500 athletes registered for these games.

Today we have a health fair for our seniors.

We have about, 2 exhibitors, vendors that service our senior population.

And so they're here with information and we have great giveaways.

And it's just fun to talk to these athletes.

One of the common denominators here is that they love being a part of the games, for the camaraderie, for the fellowship, the socialization that's just as important as their competition in their respective sports.

We do these annual games because we know how important it is for them to be here.

It's their time to shine for 25 different various tournaments happening over the course of four days.

It takes a lot of bodies, and volunteers from the community have truly stepped up.

And even our seniors, they step up.

If they're done at their competition, they pitch in they help with scorekeeping or, you know, tabulations, whatever it needs to be done at their respective event so we're very blessed to have two 150 volunteers part of the games.

I never did field events when I was in high school.

I did the high jump and I did running events and I thought, well, that sounds like fun just to do the high jump.

But then, I started doing some of the other things.

Picked up a disc a couple o years ago, picked up a javelin, and here I am.

Well, I would just encourage more women, I think, to participate.

We always have a lot of men, very few women, at least in the field events and track events.

so come out and and pick up a javelin and, you know, pick up a shotpu and give it a try.

We had one old lady a couple of years ago that came from the Navajo Nation, and she was she said, well, I've never done this, but I throw rocks at dogs and snakes.

And she threw it and it didn't go very far.

But she won a gold because she was 80 somethin and everybody cheered for her.

So that's the kind of you know community spirit that we have.

My dad was the avid shuffleboard player.

Didn't know anything about shuffleboard until he joined senior Olympics.

And it was amazing.

I would practice with him and I said, when it's my turn, this is what I'm doing.

So sure enough, here I am.

I played singles last yea when I was first able to play, and this year I convinced to do two doubles with me.

It's like a reunion.

it's like, what have you been doing the last year?

What are you doing this year?

You know, what are you competing in?

And it's open arms and just we're so happy to see each other from year to year.

And and people should come starting at 50 years old.

And we need a lot of the younger people coming out because I don't think they really know this exist.

So I need some competitors.

I need people to come out and join us and join the fun and meet people.

If your 50 or older and intereste in competing in senior Olympics, you can visit NM Senior olympics dot org.

But if Shotput or shuffleboard aren't your events, there are many options for seniors in our community offered by the City of Las Cruces senior programs Recreational Facility Manager Chris Behrens can tell us all about them.

Thank you, Chris, for being with us.

It's good to have you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you for having me.

Why don't we start out with some of those recreational programs?

We just saw that great piece about the senior Olympics, and not all of us can be gold medal winners, at any age.

But there are some lighte activities and lots of options through the city.

where do you want to begin?

Sure.

Well, I think, the biggest draw that we have to our center, it's going to be our art programs.

We've got, several art programs i a wide variety of disciplines, at virtually all of our senior centers.

But I really think that the most unique thing that we have here in the city of Las Cruces is, a lapidary and silver jewelry lab.

it's, as far as I'm aware, the largest in southern New Mexico.

And I think it's also th largest, public, shop available.

even, in the El Paso area as well.

So how do you find the righ people to put into those spaces and, and help seniors learn those crafts?

So we're, almost completely, reliant on the volunteers, that we have to, teach these safety classes that, customers need to take befor they're allowed into the labs, as well as maintain the machines and kind of advise my staff, on the right supplies to purchase, and everything like that.

So, really, it's just about, finding, who attends the activities.

that's the most interested, who's the most engaged?

And, has that driv to give back to the community, and, giving them the tools necessary to, do that work for, their fellow seniors.

virtually all of our senior within the art program.

or.

Excuse me, virtually all of our volunteers within the ar program are seniors themselves.

Let's talk a little bit about some of the fitness programs that are offered.

What can you tell us about those?

So, we've got a variety of fitness programs as well.

the most popular, that we have, currently is our dance classes.

We've got a line dance class and a ballroom dance class at the Munson Center.

And a line dance class at Sage Cafe and the Frank O'Brien Papen Center as well.

On top of that, in partnership with the New Mexico Senior Olympics, we have enhanced fit program that's offered at Munson Center and Sage Cafe, among a few others that we have as well.

And those are very highly attended, very dedicated group of seniors.

And, to be honest with you, many of them could run circles around me.

So I'm sure, not.

I mean, one of these years, far, far in the future when I turn 50, you know, I was thinking about, you know, what events might be really fun to try, right?

Because we we know that there isn't a robust participation necessarily everywhere, bu especially on that younger side.

So, you've got people that are certainly able to stay super fit well into their senior years.

Absolutely.

And there's still room for people who maybe are newe to some of those events as well.

So my program, caters to, members of community age 50 plus.

So we've got people as young as 50, we've got people as old as, I think, a 103, 104, that are engaging in some of our recreation activities.

And, I think the dances are just a really good example of blending multiple disciplines.

we've got the physical aspects and the dancing and then the social aspect of being able to go with, your friends, maybe get dressed up a little bit, have a bit of fun.

we just finished up, in October, our third annual Halloween bash.

that was our highest attendance yet at 19 seniors costume contest, photo booth, games, refreshments, the whole nine yards.

And, we got really good feedback from our seniors.

There's a lot of researc about the benefits, the health benefits, the mental healt benefits, physical benefits of, of all of these types of things.

But I think specifically dancing alone has been shown to reduce your chances by a significant amount.

I think of, of, the onset of dementia, for example.

And so it's got both of those components, right?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Like I said, it, blends that physical and social aspect to keep your body and your mind engaged at the same time.

Well, one thing that can keep your body and mind, your mind and your dexterity engaged and some of the games that you offer, around the senior centers and so maybe talk a little bit about some of those opportunities.

Sure.

Yeah.

The, the biggest game that we offer, is by far billiards, at the Eastside Center and Munson Center.

We've got billiards tables.

Those are available to the public, Monday through Friday, 8 to 5.

And it is free.

Y'all can come in and, shoot some poo with your friends if you'd like.

and at the Munson Cente the last Friday of every month, we have a billiards tournament as well.

on top of that, we have game days at multiple, buildings, where you can just bring in board games.

you know, we have pinochle, that a lot of people are interested in.

And one of the most, I think unique games that we're offering, and this is in partnership with the, Branigan Library is, we hav a Dungeons and Dragons group at, the Munson Center, and it's seniors 50 plus, exclusively.

In that group.

And that's because that's how old people are no that played Dungeons and Dragons when they were in middle school.

Isn't it?

Well, we've got quite a few seniors that are interested in it, but I can tell you for sure my younger brothers both love it.

So it's it is definitel a multi-generational activity.

All right.

Very nice, very nice.

Well, let's talk a little bi about, that social interaction.

We've touched on it a little bit, but I'd like for you to give u some perspective on how you see those benefits manifesting in your work every day.

Well, you know, we have a large group of, of seniors at each one of our buildings that, I would say our seniors are probably our senior centers are probabl the biggest social interaction they get throughout the day.

And they really kind of start to feel lik our buildings are a second home.

All of their friends go there.

Many of them even attend with some of their family members.

We've got, adults going with their even older parents.

as they take care of them in their older age.

and it's just really just a blending pot of that older segment of the population.

on top of that, we have some, educational activities, that are, highlighting that social aspect, even more.

We've got our Spanish classes where we've got native speakers and new learners, that are working together to kind of bridge that language gap there.

And so you see a lot of, really interesting interaction there between those two groups of people.

I have heard peopl speak of that program in terms of how they interact with each other.

And, and, and some, you know, new to English, some new to Spanish and how they're helping each other.

That's.

Yeah, really inspiring.

you mentioned those educational programs, and I think there's a whole lot more, associated with that with that concept of lifelong learning.

But, you know, you don't necessarily even have to be a senior to maybe need some help with some new technology from time to time.

So, as far as, learning with technology, of course, all of our staff members there at the senior centers are willing to offer whatever help they can, for specific education, though we have worked with the library in the past and continue to work with the library and offering tech classe to our seniors in our buildings.

If you are interested, you're more than welcome to call the Munson Center or the Branigan Library to find out when the next class might be available for you.

Earlier, you mentioned volunteers, so I'd like to give you the opportunity to kind of expand on, what roles they play and how people could maybe spend some of their time volunteering to engage with seniors in our community.

So the volunteer program, as far as I know, started as the retired senior volunteer program many years ago.

And that, that, evolved into what it is today, the volunteer network.

R-S-V-P got it.

So the volunteer network today is a city wide organization.

It just doesn't, handle seniors.

you can, register online for that program.

You can find the link through the city's website.

You can see the full catalog of, volunteer opportunities that are available.

And if you are interested in volunteering at the senior center, you don't have to be a senior to do that.

We've got many, people under 50 who volunteer to help out in the dining room, you know, clean up tables, help seniors with mobility issues get their, tables to the excuse me, trays to the table.

and as I mentione earlier, many of our volunteers actually, run the art programs that we have.

they're the instructors that teach the certification classes or the beginner's classes, and they help maintain the equipment for our open labs as well.

Well, you mentioned meal times, and I wanted to move on to nutrition next because many of us head into a new year thinking about how we're going to change our diets for the better and nutrition is so important as we age.

And, you know, it's more critica than just cutting carbs, right?

Absolutely.

So the nutrition program is, one of the three programs that operates under senior programs mine is recreation.

And as I said, nutrition is the second, we have the congregate meal program and the home delivered meal program.

the congregate program is wha you think of at a senior center the lunch is offered there.

seniors can sit dow with their friends, have a meal, and that is approved by the state nutritionists that we work with and it is one third of the daily recommended nutritional valu you should be having every day.

And the home delivered program, those are the Meals on Wheels trucks you might see driving around the city.

those will take meals to our homebound seniors that are not able to, provide meals for themselve and who don't have a caretaker able to coo or provide those meals for them.

And when I think of kind of social interaction, my mind kind of goes into when those folks are at home, maybe an important four legged friend that keeps them company.

And there's hel in that department as well.

Yep.

we have in the past gotten some grants for the food for paws program.

that was a great success.

The Meals on Wheels program would assist homebound seniors who also had pets by providing dog or cat food, as they were able to.

and the reason that we started to do tha is because we were finding that, many seniors, if given the choice between letting their pet go hungry or sharing their home delivered meal with them, they would they would share the meal with their pet.

And we wanted to make sure that those seniors could stay in the home as long as possible, having their nutritional needs met, as well as the nutritional needs of their pets.

And, you know, you mentioned earlier those folks that maybe both in the senior category, but that are taking care of their elder parents and, some of them need, you know, longer term care.

I'd like for you to touch a little bit about, on a little bit about some of those options for long term in-home care that the city provides.

Yep.

The long term care program is that third program under senior programs.

that program has all the case managers, that our customers speak with on intake for the nutrition program or home care programs.

they'll determine exactly what level of assistance you need and what resources we have at our disposal able to help you.

We also have the, home care workers that will go into the home, do some housekeeping, assist you with, some do some chore you might have around the house.

Help you run some errands if you need to and then we also have the, respite care program.

If you are a, care provider for your, disabled, senior parent, or, maybe your spouse has dementi and you're the primary caregiver for them.

We will have a caregiver come in and relieve you, for a few hours, so that you can go do whatever you need to do.

If that's, go run some errands, go watch a movie, even take a nap at home if you need to.

We talk about the extreme cost of at home care.

How is that funded?

Most of that is funded through, grants that we receive from the non-metro Area Agency on Aging.

So what is the cost to individuals?

Is there a cost?

So all of our programs have recommended donations.

They are minimal.

The congregate meal program has a recommended donation of $2.50.

And while we do encourage people to make that if they are able, it is not a requirement and donations are completely anonymous.

We do not watch if you are making the donation or not.

So it is entirely if you are able to donate.

All right.

Where to go for more information on everything we talked about because it was a lot.

Yep.

You can visit us at Las cruces dot gov or call the Munso Senior Center at 575-528-3000.

Right.

Chris Behrens Senior programs facility recreation facility manager.

Thank you very muc for spending this time with us.

We appreciate you being here.

Not a problem.

I appreciate you inviting me.

Oh, before you go, are you a golfer?

Oh, I'm not, but, you know, like we tell our seniors all the time, it' never too late to start, right?

That's right.

And we've got a perfect way to start for veterans.

Golf is the sport we'll be talking about next.

And a program called PGA Hop helping Our Patriots Everywhere, which teache all aspects of the game by PGA professional regardless of experience level.

It's held at the NMSU golf course, and the program aims to improve veterans social, physical and mental well-being.

Oh, oh ohhh.

Here today we're doing, free golf lessons for veterans and active duty to enhance their emotional, social, and, mental well-being.

It gets them out of the house, get some socializing with other people, and, I think they're having fun right now.

I found out about the progra through a friend of mine, which, he convinced me to sign up, and and he couldn't attend the program after all.

So I'm here by myself.

I'm fully retired now, so, I've been i it for about about a year now, so I want to learn some good habits and not bad habits.

Hopefully improv my game as a as I started play, you know, take it on.

It's a new a new hobby into th future.

If this gives a positive roll once you start getting in reverse.

I think the biggest impact it's had on me, A, just from the golf perspective, I love being around golfers and getting to talk to them, but when you kind of layer that on with the veteran piece, it's one of the things you'll hear if you talk to enough veterans, you'll hear them talk about how much they miss the camaraderie of being around other veterans.

And other people have serve kind of experiences that we all shared, experiences we all had, and not being able to do that on a golf course and getting to meet, you know, some great peopl like both here up in Albuquerque when we went up there last fall.

And being able to connect, connect that has been has been great.

Being able to, to really tak that message out and, and go out and, and say, hey, this, this program is you gotta come check this out.

Even if you've never golf before.

Just come out, hang out with these guys.

It's it's fantastic.

Yeah.

It's great.

So great.

We have a 324 years of service with everybody, 326, including myself.

But we have 324 years of service with this whole group right now.

And every single one of them has a different story about how they got here and how they want to start doing golf.

We have some people who are trying to go for the senior tour over here, and we have some people who have never picked up a golf club before in their life, and this game is the greatest one that there is out there, and I want to make sure everybody plays it.

So this is a multi-week program and we're going to hit everything and it's perfect for anybody who's a beginner.

Or if they're advanced and they want to get better at the game.

Today we're working on putting because that's where everything begins.

Putting is the most important part about a golf getting the stability, getting the pendulum motion of that putter to make sure you hit it i the center of the putter face.

And then we build up from there.

So we'll go from putting the chipping to pitching to full swing, driver, and we'll end on the golf course.

My story is kind of funny because my dad was in the military and he started I started caddying when I was like 4 or 5.

So he used to take off on us on the golf course we used to caddy for him.

So we used to drag his golf clubs 18 holes.

So eventually we started like getting to the game of golf.

And so we just me and my brothers have also picked up the game and I just love what I do.

I just love golfing.

The reason why I think people should join us is because the fact that people don't realiz what service members go through either coming in, coming out of the military and come into civilian life.

And I think that coming together as a group actually builds servicemembers up.

And to be able to jus to be able to talk and get out your problems if you if you have any problems, you're always willing to to help out.

Well, m goal is since I'm 51 right now, I'm trying to do it as senior PGA because I seen guys that was 80 doing that said they can do the 80.

I can do it at 50.

If I say, I want to start about 53, 54.

So I gave me about three years of practice because it's a simple sport simple but hard because it's all about algebra the game.

You got to angle a certain wa to win everything, so.

But I love it.

Like I said, the scenery I love just walking around.

You wouldn't think this golf course would be here in, New Mexico, in the desert.

So.

Thanks to senior TV producer Courtney Hill fo introducing us to that program.

And thank you for watching Fronteras a Changing America in a brand new season for 2026 here on KRWG Public Media.

You can watch episodes of this program and all our local programing at KRWG dot org where you can sign up for our weekly newsletter, The Friday News Wrap.

Become a member and support programing like this and catch up on news fro the region and around the world.

Any time.