Jump to: Football and Fun Runs: The Key Diffs
Burn off kindhearted calories for a cause with today’s Groupon. For $15, you’ll get entrance, a t-shirt, and post-run party food and drink at the 17th Annual 2009 Sheltering Arms Turkey Trot, taking place on Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 26, at 8 a.m. All proceeds help the nonprofit continue to promote the independence and dignity of more than 68,000 seniors and their caregivers.
On the annual day of thanks, don a costume for a chance to win prizes, and waddle, stilt-walk, or mentally project yourself down to the race’s starting point at the corner of Uptown Park at 610 and Post Oak Boulevard. You can opt to run a 5K or 10K, and opt to show your support of a loved one with a memorial bib. Bring your wound-up nephews to exercise all the energy out of them—kids under 12 run for $10 (available online). This Groupon does not include the $3.25 registration fee.
Instead of assuming a fetal position on the floor and nodding off into a tryptophan-induced slumber, this is your chance to do something productive, kind, and calorie-burning on your day off. Running in a charitable race also merits guiltless second helpings of pumpkin pie, pumpkin mousse, or pumpkin pumpkin. If you’re stuck entertaining your adult cousins who have baby hands, this Groupon gives you an escape excuse that relatives will find highly respectable.
Football and Fun Runs: The Key Diffs
Today’s Groupon presents you with a choice: Should you spend your Turkey Day watching football or engaging in a charity fun run? To help you decide, here are the key differences between helping those in need and watching the game:
Fun Run: Leaves you feeling great physically and spiritually.
Football: Leaves you with in-depth knowledge of beer selling points.
Fun Run: Brings neighbors together.
Football: Brings nachos and screaming together.
Fun Run: Great opportunity to help seniors.
Football: Great opportunity to point out cheerleaders to bookworm nephew.
Fun Run: Has a positive social impact and is a fun excuse to get out of the house.
Football: Has no redeeming social value and is a fun excuse to avoid talking to your significant others.
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Sheltering Arms Senior Services
Founded in 1893, Sheltering Arms Senior Services has devoted more than a century to providing Houston’s elderly population with care, advocacy, and community support. Despite its long history, the nonprofit organization is only looking forward. Between 2011 and 2012, it provided seniors with 128,658 hours of personal-care assistance—including meal preparation and housekeeping—and fed 2,182 seniors a nutritious meal. And their specially designed Adult Day Center, which provides top-notch care for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Factor in the organization's more than 20 Houston-area senior centers, where staffers offer recreational activities, health education, and legal advocacy, and it is clear that Sheltering Arms is only building upon its 120-year foundation.
Sheltering Arms' mission begins with its committed corps of staff members and volunteers. Certified nurses’ aides customize and implement home-care plans that include light housekeeping, meal prep, and medication reminders. Social workers advocate for members at risk of being institutionalized by managing their financial and health casework. Volunteers make daily safety checks on seniors who are living alone and organize arts-and-crafts classes, game nights, and dances.