Bowling for independence

Beth Slovic

Friday, Feb. 25, 2005 | 3:56 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

February 26 - 27, 2005

After work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Renee Shoemaker, 25, joins her friends at Sante Fe Station's bowling alley to unwind and socialize.

The routine is always the same. From 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Shoemaker and more than 20 of her friends fill the first 10 lanes of the alley. They laugh and talk about their days, while competing against each other and their own best scores.

Just about the only difference between this scene and others at the bowling alley is that Shoemaker and her fellow bowlers have developmental disabilities ranging from Down syndrome to cerebral palsy, and the bowlers are supervised by paid therapeutic recreation specialists.

Organized by the city of Las Vegas' Department of Leisure Services, New A.G.E. is an after-work program for adults 22 years old and older designed to help participants gain independent-living skills. It runs Monday through Friday from 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., and for some of the participants and their loved ones it's irreplaceable.

"It's the greatest thing we have ever gotten her into," Dale Shoemaker, Renee's father, said about the program. "She gets physical activity and social time, and it's something to keep her occupied that she fully enjoys."

When Renee Shoemaker graduated from the Clark County School District, she immediately entered the adaptive recreation program with the city. Many of the other participants did the same, Jennifer Winder, the senior adaptive recreation leader who oversees the program, said.

Ninety-five percent of the program's participants work during the day, Winder added. Some are janitors in casinos. Others work at Opportunity Village, a training facility for mentally handicapped adults. Renee Shoemaker works at a day care center in downtown Las Vegas, keeping 4- through 6-year-olds busy with playtime activities.

None of the participants live on their own, Winder said. A few live in group homes, and a number of them live with their parents, she added.

The participants enjoy hanging out with each other, and the program is unique in that it offers them a chance to do so for a long period of time each day, Winder said.

"There's no other adult program where they can be for hours at a time," she said.

When they're not bowling, participants work on art projects, swim and watch movies.

And, Renee Shoemaker said, they feed the ducks at the program's headquarters (inside the Twin Lakes Adaptive Recreation Center at 3333 W. Washington Ave.).

The program costs $7 a day, Winder said, and anyone can participate.

Of all the activities, Renee Shoemaker said, she liked bowling with her teammate Wilma Ray best.

And trying new things, such as bowling, in a safe and supportive environment is one of the goals of the program, Winder said.

"We're teaching them to bowl here so they can bowl on their own with their families," she said. "We're teaching them independence."

More information on the program is available at (702) 229-5177.