SIERRA HENRY
The Pantagraph (Bloomington)
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (AP) — Do you remember the last time you played outside?
That was a question Gloria Lewis found herself asking shortly after moving to Bloomington to be closer to her mother following her husband’s retirement. At age 64, Lewis left her 40-year home in Chicago to an area where she knew very few people outside of her family, The Pantagraph reports.
Wanting to connect and meet other women in her new community, Lewis decided to open a chapter of the Chicago-based 40-plus Double Dutch Club in Bloomington to create a space for people in her age group to come together, play games and have fellowship.
“It’s helping women — all over the age of 40 and all over the world — improve their physical, spiritual and mental health through fitness, fellowships, and friendship,” said Lewis. “It’s a tool that is designed to help women focus on the importance of sound bodies and minds, especially during this pandemic.”
Lewis has put a call out to women over the age of 40 in Bloomington-Normal and Peoria area who might be interested in getting together and playing all the same games they used to as kids. That includes Double Dutch, hand games, hopscotch, jacks, line dancing, hula hooping and more.
The idea is to spend an hour hanging out, exercising and coming together. Lewis said she has heard from several people who are interested in the organization so far.
“I’ve been thinking about it for months and months and months before I put a notice out on Facebook,” said Lewis, who is currently searching for a location to host club meetings. “I was blown away by the response that I did get from women that were interested in joining the club.”
The 40-plus Double Dutch Club got its start in Chicago in May 2016 when Pamela Robinson was in a similar situation as Lewis. Going through a divorce after 20 years of marriage and her children moving out of the house, Robinson was feeling lost.
But while reminiscing about childhood during a barbecue, a friend reminded Robinson about how they used to jump rope and Double Dutch all the time as young girls. Before long, Robinson was jumping rope in the backyard like she was a kid again.
“I was going through a period of wondering what my purpose was, and to be completely honest, I was going through a depression,” said Robinson. “I had been a wife and mother for so long, that’s how I defined myself.
“I realized in the time that I was jumping rope, it made me forget about all the thing going on that was making me sad.”
The organization started first with a small group of women from Robinson’s church who met once a week to jump rope. But the club really began taking off after it was featured on a local TV news segment in 2019, growing from 50 Chicagoland women to 1,000 women across the globe in once a week.
Sub-clubs soon began popping up across the globe, each guided by Robinson and co-founder Catrina Dyer-Taylor. Today, there are 100 sub-clubs in the U.S., two in Canada and one each in Israel and Germany, with a combined 30,000 members.
Last summer, the organization had its first in-person conference event with 250 women joining together. Robinson said the group is currently working on plans for its second event this summer.
To Robinson, the group is more than just an exercise group. It is a fellowship of women who come together and uplift each other.
“It’s one movement, one sisterhood, many locations,” said Robinson. “We want to inspire other women. Getting old doesn’t have to be bad!”
Lewis is still working on securing a location for a local sub-club of the organization, but is open to talking with anyone interested in joining.
The club doesn’t collect dues or any fees, but members are asked to join the national 40-plus Double Dutch Club on Facebook and purchase an official T-shirt through the organization that includes the member’s last name and age. Lewis also anticipates participating in volunteer work through the organization.
“Right now we’ve suspended indoor activity for two weeks because of the omicron variant that seems to be taking over the land,” said Lewis. “Most of the time we’re meeting outside on playground, in a parking lot, wherever we can find some flat space where we are able to gather at.”
She added, “I think the draw for doing it is just the idea of getting together with your friends and playing games that you played as little girls and forgetting that you’re an adult for a while.”
