‘Pied Piper’ Trumpets Exercise Among Seniors

The Pied Piper of Fitness wants to put together a marching band.

Bill Selvin of Irvine, an 81-year-old dynamo who earned that nickname for his decades of dedication to exercise programs for senior citizens, is trying to enlist an army of assistants to help spread the word.

Selvin has touched the lives of thousands with the classes he teaches five days a week at various senior centers and nursing homes throughout the county. But he won’t be satisfied until he’s reached millions, and he knows that’s something he can’t do alone. The solution, as he sees it, is to train other teachers, who can train others.

That’s the purpose of Growing Older Gracefully Inc., a nonprofit organization of which Selvin is founder and executive director. Eventually, Selvin hopes to set up a teacher training program, but for now, the organization is concentrating on fund-raising, according to Suzanne McClanahan, a former assistant to Orange County Supervisor Roger Stanton and a member of the group’s board of directors.

Funds are hard to come by in these slow economic times, however. And Selvin finds that particularly frustrating because he’s convinced that spending a little money to help seniors keep fit will save a lot down the road in medical and nursing home costs.

Selvin cites a 1991 report from the Institute of Medicine, an affiliate of the National Academy of Sciences, which states that if elderly patients could stay healthy for only one month longer before being admitted to nursing homes, that would save more than $3 billion a year. He claims that if that month were extended into years that annual figure could be as high as $100 billion.

Debra Secord, a professor of health and gerontology at Coastline Community College and president of the Growing Older Gracefully board of directors, agrees that “it would save the state and the nation a substantial sum if seniors were able to keep fit.”

The elderly now use almost a third of the nation’s medical resources, and that share is expected to rise as the baby boom generation ages.

“We’re already seeing baby boomers in their 50s, so it won’t be much longer,” Secord says.

Between 1990 and 2040, she says, physician visits to the elderly are expected to increase 160%, days of hospital care for the elderly are expected to rise 200%, and the number of nursing home residents will increase 280%.

“And when you consider that three of the top medical problems for people age 65 or older are heart disease, high blood pressure and arthritis, all those are affected by lifestyle. Physical activity, no matter when it’s started, can help decrease the chances of being affected by those diseases.”

“My goal is to keep everyone--EVERYONE--out of nursing homes. There are so many people just rusting away. It breaks my heart,” Selvin says.

He visits several local nursing homes each week as a volunteer, leading residents in whatever exercises they’re able to do, opening and closing their hands, lifting their arms while seated in chairs or wheelchairs, or rolling a ball back and forth across a tabletop.

He also teaches more conventional fitness classes at senior centers in Westminster and Tustin, as well as Coastline Community College. Most of his students are women, many of whom never participated before in any formalized exercise program.

“Those are really the people we want to reach, the people who probably wouldn’t sign up for a fitness activity,” Secord says. Selvin’s idea is to train seniors to teach other seniors, so that they can also lead by example.

Secord and McClanahan agree that the “Pied Piper” label is appropriate for Selvin.

“He has quite a following,” Secord says.

“He really does do what he preaches,” McClanahan says. “And he tailors the classes to what people can do.”

In addition to the exercise he gets teaching fitness classes, Selvin walks or jogs several miles a day, jumps rope and pays close attention to his diet.

He ran a coast-to-coast relay with six other senior citizens when he was 66, stopping along the way to hold fitness workshops for seniors.

“I’ve been in shape all my life,” he says. “I only go to the doctor for checkups.”

He does understand that other people aren’t so lucky, however, and he tries not to let his own health intimidate his students.

“I tell them to sit down if they’re tired,” he says. “Nobody judges anybody else. They just do the best they can and build up slowly.”

But he doesn’t pull punches, either.

“I tell people the less activity you have and the less you move your body, the sooner you’re going to go to your grave,” he says. “If you want to die in a hurry, it’s easy. Just do nothing. Sit in a chair, watch TV, and go to the refrigerator during every commercial.”

If he gets funding, Selvin plans to recruit and train 1,000 teachers in Orange County, eventually expanding the program statewide and nationally.

“We could pave the way for the whole nation,” he says.

Secord says that in addition to securing funding, Growing Older Gracefully plans to start pre- and post-testing of Selvin’s students, measuring such factors as muscle mass, flexibility and blood pressure.

“Some of the students who’ve had his classes have had fewer trips to the doctor and they’ve also lowered their blood pressure,” Secord says.

“It’s a real benefit that Bill is doing this work already, because we know it works,” McClanahan says.

Selvin did receive funding for a two-year pilot program in 1983 and 1984 through the county of Orange. Although the funding did not continue, a survey of participants--whose average age was 77--found that 69% felt generally happier and more relaxed, 47% had longer, more restful sleep, 52% reported fewer visits to the doctor, 51% were using less medication, and 92% felt that exercise improved body tone and general health.

That evidence, McClanahan says, may be useful in helping convince a health maintenance organization or charitable foundation to fund a larger program.

“This is something I want to get accomplished in my lifetime,” Selvin says.