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Retirement Community Prepares for Tulsa's Great Raft Race

Matt Trotter
/
KWGS

With less than two weeks until Labor Day, teams are putting the final touches on their vessels for Tulsa’s Great Raft Race — including several octogenarians.

Residents of Montereau Retirement Community will be on the water. Wellness Director Kristen Schooley is tasked with keeping residents active and engaged, and she likes to think outside the box.

"We think about what do people in the community think of, you know, senior citizens typically, and let's just blow their minds and get our residents involved with things that they'd never think that seniors would be involved in," Schooley said. "So, for instance, this raft race."

The Great Raft Race is in its second year after a 2015 revival of the Arkansas River event. Five of the six residents on Montereau’s 12-person team are over 80 years old, and the sixth is 76.

It will be 86-year-old Bonnie Ruble's first year on the water. She was painting the raft Wednesday morning.

"I wanted to ride last year, but we didn't have wheels on our raft so I couldn't lift my weight and help them get it in the water," Ruble said. "This year, we've got wheels, so I can help get it in the water."

Rob Denzinger and Paul Moser said they’ll be causing as much trouble on the Arkansas River as anyone else.

"We've all got water guns. Big water guns," Denzinger said.

"I bought a kit of 100 balloons with a filler for it and then one of these little shovels the kids use at the beach for a launcher," Moser said.

The Montereau raft will be a vibrant purple with a canopy tent and several plastic chairs bolted to the deck, in case you want to avoid it come Labor Day.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.