Kelly Kindall, Marketing Director, San Diego Oasis

Elinor Smith is an important part of Oasis. At 89 years young, she is a certified personal trainer and has been teaching fitness classes at San Diego Oasis for over nine years. She has taught some 500 classes, which equates to touching the lives of over 3,000 older adults.

San Diego Oasis is on a mission to change the way people experience aging by providing its members with opportunities to pursue vibrant, healthy, productive and meaningful lives through education, wellness, and community service. The community-based organization annually hosts some 3,000 online and in-person workshops at over 40 locations to 5,600 people throughout San Diego County. 

While Oasis seeks to nourish the bodies and minds of the county’s seniors, Elinor focuses on the bodies. It’s not the first career she’s had, but she believes it’s the best way to stay active. Her mother lived to 100, most of it in good health, so she figures it’s in her genes to live a long life. With one daughter and son-in-law, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild, she has to stay healthy and active to keep up with them.   

As for the minds, Oasis offers multiple educational programs designed to enrich the lives of participants but also to tap into their lifetimes of knowledge to better the community. The nonprofit’s Intergenerational Literacy Tutoring Program matches an older adult to an at-risk, low-income student in grades K through 4. Its Digital Divide program brings technology to low-income seniors in need through tablets, training and access to the internet. 

Elinor grew up in the Boston area, with parents determined to see her succeed. Early in her life, it was clear that Elinor would excel, so they enrolled her in the best possible schools, which led to her attending Vassar College and then Harvard University, where she earned a master’s in Slavic languages and also studied Latin, French, Spanish and German. She relocated to the Bay Area with her husband at the time and began a long career in education, specializing in gifted students, teaching grades K through 12. She ultimately headed the Gifted Program for the State of California, implementing regulations for a newly created law affecting gifted students.  

Understanding that there might be more to life, she decided to consult for gifted programs around the country and internationally for over 20 years. With thoughts of retirement looming at 71, she decided she would be bored to tears if she stopped working, so she went to City College in San Diego to become a personal trainer, interning at SDSU and the YMCA.   

Elinor says the secret to getting older is how you handle it.

“You have to understand that you will meet challenges as you age,” she said. “You can say getting older is the pits, or you can appreciate that you still have opportunities ahead. Taking care of yourself physically and mentally is so important and learning about the connection between your body and your mind. 

“If you need to have medical things done, like hip replacements (she has new hips, knees, and shoulders), just get them done. What I do now I do because I have the wisdom and the knowledge I didn’t have when I was younger.”  

Elinor believes in the Oasis motto of doing something for your mind, your body, and your community. “Getting older is a fact of life, so you may as well enjoy the ride.” 

At Oasis, we love sharing the ride with you, Elinor.

If you’re an older adult looking to stay healthy, engaged, and involved in the world, San Diego Oasis can help you learn something new through online and in-person classes, travel experiences, and opportunities to volunteer and help others.