New Chapter in Santa Rosa, California

The Oakmont Parkinson’s Support Group is in a retirement community just outside Santa Rosa, California, in the beautiful Valley of the Moon of Sonoma County. We are a wonderful haven of support for those who need us. A few months ago, we became intrigued by rumors about the benefits of Ping Pong for Parkinson’s/ We watched PPP’s videos and were thoroughly captivated by the positive impact they showcased. It didn’t take long for all of us to be all in.

Our retirement community has 5,000 residents and wonderful facilities, which include 4 indoor ping pong tables and 2 outdoor tables. We teamed up with an existing Oakmont Table Tennis Club for mentoring, coaching, and providing the skills needed to help us. It has been a wonderful partnership.

We have been playing for about a month now, and so far, there are about 18 people with a Parkinson’s diagnosis playing and at least that many additional enthusiastic volunteers. At our support group meeting, we always do a “round robin” where we share something good that happened to us in the last couple of weeks—lately, the resounding answer for “something good” is ping pong! Members have reported they sleep better than usual after a session, wake up with less tremor, and notice clearer thinking.

We hope to play in the Senior Wine Country Games in May, but for right now, we are measuring success by the number of volleys we can maintain, the laughter we hear, a growing sense of community, better sleep, clearer thinking, and a bit of joy. We hope to inspire Parkinson’s Support Groups in Sonoma and Marin County to form chapters so we can play with them.

Thank you, PingPongParkinson, for your support and inspiration!

– Cristine Nota, Founder of PPP Santa Rosa