There was little if any mercy shown as 15 residents of Friendship Village Schaumburg played aggressive rounds of laser tag at the Main Event in Hoffman Estates last week.

The idea for the outing was presented by staff to the resident-run wellness committee. “They really didn’t know what laser tag was when we explained it to them at first. No one had done this before and we had to explain what it was,” said Jessica Enriquez, manager of wellness services at Friendship Village. “They decided they needed to give it a try.”

Friendship Village’s lifestyles team coordinated the outing as part of a growing effort to present opportunities for more adventurous activities to residents of the retirement community. Older adults sometimes feel like they need to forgo attempting new adventures. That’s not necessarily the case. “We like to introduce the residents to a lot of firsts,” said Jessica. Over the past several years, the residents have gone go-karting, rock-climbing, shooting archery and more.

“When we drove up to Main Event for the laser tag outing, the residents were really excited. There were lots of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhhs’,” she said. “When we went in they were really amped up and so excited. Everyone was smiling and there was even some smack talking going on.”

The group played three rounds“Everyone was sneaking around, yelling, laughing and just having a blast,” said Jessica.