Davisville seniors too hot to handle

[attach]3150[/attach]Skinny-dipping, smooching in the backseat of a car, disco dancing, indulging in a little champagne and grapes.

Sounds like the nightlife of young adults, right?

Wrong.

This is how the octogenarian (and up) models at Davisville’s Revera’s Claremont Retirement Residence spend their evenings, as illustrated in a tongue-and-cheek calendar recently published for charity.

The exploits of these stereotype-shattering seniors are featured in their 2011 pin-up calendar, titled The Claremont After Dark.

It features a dozen eye-popping shots of 16 residents, ages ranging from 85-95, participating in activities not typically associated with their age.

And it’s all for fun — and charity. Proceeds from the $12 calendar are going to Free the Children.

“The idea was really inspired by the movie Calendar Girls,” said Lynn Webster, senior executive director at The Claremont.

“Most of our residents have spent a lifetime raising money for various charities, and this is another way for them to show they’re still vibrant, vital parts of the community able to contribute.”

Sales have helped to build two schools overseas, and a third is now in the works.

For Mimsi Lewis, otherwise known as Miss May, the calendar is an opportunity to have some fun.

“It brings us all together,” said the seven-year Claremont resident.

Now in her mid-90s, Lewis, has been in every calendar to date, and even graced a past calendar’s cover.

“We show people we still have lots of fun and excitement here in the building, and that we seniors don’t just have to sit in a chair with a caregiver.”

Hugh Wesley, a retired Toronto Sun photographer famous for his pictures of the Sunshine Girl, volunteers his time each year to put it all together.

The original 2006 version was called The Glamour Girls, and featured an all-female cast of models wearing pearls.

Since then other themes have included a swimsuit edition, an extreme sports edition, and an “around the world” edition.

Lewis said at first she was nervous, but not self-conscious. She simply wanted to do a good job modeling and wasn’t sure what to expect.

“I’m in my mid-nineties. Never in a million years did I think I would be posing in something that was going to be sold across Canada,” Lewis said. “But Hugh is absolutely excellent with us.

“It’s marvelous to know that we can raise money, and choose where it’s going, and who it’s going to help, ourselves.”

However, Webster said the inspiration the calendar provides for other seniors is just as important as charitable donations, Webster said.

“They’re not a generation that are usually very extraverted,” she said. “We took them out of their comfort zone to try something daring, and exciting, … that really is the nature of living.

“They express their inner youth, because it doesn’t matter what you look like on the outside, it’s what’s on the inside.”

Other charities that have received donations in the past include and the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and the Children’s Wish Foundation.

The Claremont calendars have raised a total of $85,000 to date.

To order a 2011 calendar, call (416) 440-0012, or e-mail [email=Claremont@Reveraliving.com]Claremont@Reveraliving.com[/email].