At 87 years old, Goshen’s Lilyan Wright continues to teach physical education five mornings a week to local seniors and nursing home residents. (Photo: David Lazar)
From her days in pigtails, Goshen’s Lilyan Wright laughs she has never known how to sit still. At 87, the retired coach and lifelong volunteer has never slowed down, drawing daily from a bottomless well of get-up-and go to show everyone, from schoolchildren to seniors, that exercise can be fun.
“People ask how I continue to do this, and all I can say in response is, ‘You don’t know how much I get from you,’” she says. “They really do energize you.” By all accounts, the favor is returned. Wright’s daily calendar is decidedly more Gatorade than Golden Girl, the former gym teacher and full-time grandma logging dozens of mountain miles to teach folks at neighboring Newport’s senior center and nursing home how to stay in shape – all free of charge.
Wright’s affinity for fitness began in the playground as a youngster, fashioning makeshift equipment and digging pits by hand for long jump competitions. By junior high, she was competing against boys in track and field and setting school records in the process. She was also beginning to recognize her calling. Wright would earn a doctorate in education from Rutgers University, coaching for 19 years in New Jersey public schools and 30 at then-Trenton State College, where the girls’ varsity program she launched set national records for Division III championships in field hockey, basketball and lacrosse.
In 1992, Wright and her now late husband Richard retired to their vacation cabin in Goshen. It was a retirement in name only. Before long, Wright had begun volunteering with after-school programs. She set up field hockey and lacrosse teams at Goshen-Lempster Cooperative School, where she mowed grass, patched up holes and bought new equipment. She also began teaching a morning exercise class to seniors. What started as a scattered handful of students has since ballooned to the 25 who faithfully pack the gym three mornings a week, rain or shine, Wright and her trusty boombox belting out music and instructions. “What I’m aiming for is to keep people out of the hospital and doctors’ offices,” she says. “They get a workout!”
Wright, herself, continues to amaze. When she isn’t teaching, producing an exercise video for local cable, or officiating the occasional field hockey and lacrosse game (she remains active on the Governor’s Council on Physical Activity and Health), she’s serving Goshen on its school and library boards or counseling female jail inmates on decision-making skills. As for sitting still? “I always just loved teaching,” she says. “That’s why I’ve done it so long for next to nothing. Someday I’ll retire, I guess.”
