The Time of Their Lives: The Winners of Our Age Adventurously Day Giveaway!
- From a 63-year-old Master Beekeeper to a 79-year-old first-time author reading at open-mic night, our five winners prove that curiosity and courage know no age limits.
- With 1,628 entries from across the country, the 2026 Age Adventurously Day giveaway showed just how many forms adventure can take — and how many ways there are to embrace lifelong learning.
- Age Adventurously Day returns June 8, 2027 — but why wait? Every day is a perfect opportunity to learn something new, stretch your horizons and embrace the joy of growth and discovery.
June 8, 2026, marked the second annual Age Adventurously Day, when we invited Road Scholars to celebrate the joys of discovery and lifelong learning by trying something new — and telling us about it in a giveaway contest! Winners would each receive one of five $500 Road Scholar vouchers.
The response was amazing — and inspiring. We had a total of 1,628 entries from all across the country showing the wonderful ways Road Scholars are proving that adventure comes in many forms — and has no age limit!
Jean M., a Cornell-certified Master Beekeeper.
A tip of the cap to these five adventurous winners:
On June 8, Jean M. from Flemington, N.J., was in her apiary inspecting her honeybees. Her passion for lifelong learning led her to become a Cornell-certified Master Beekeeper and teach beekeeping courses locally (as well as wrangle honey bees in the county bee booth). She also made a recent Road Scholar journey to her seventh continent, Antarctica, where the 63-year-old took a polar plunge into 34.5-degree water!
Donna H. placed 5th in the 2022 race.
Donna H. from San Juan Capistrano, Calif., spent Age Adventurously Day preparing for the 2026 Air Race Classic, a transcontinental derby of all-women pilots. She’s one of approximately 100 pilots ages 16 to 96 (she herself is 68) who will race their planes 2,400 miles over four days, making stops in eight or nine states. It’s an event started by pioneering women all the way back in 1929.
Martha R. and her boat.
Martha F. from Green Cove Springs, Fla., recently lost her husband, but not the love of adventure they shared. The 73-year-old is now living aboard her 52-foot boat, Monarch, plying the waters of Florida. She intends to apply her voucher to her first-ever Road Scholar program!
Vanita W. and her husband.
Vanita W. of Redding, Conn., sees growing older not as a time for shrinking life, but for stretching it. Now 65, she has joined her husband — a commercial pilot — on more than two dozen journeys in recent years, traveling standby. It requires patience and a willingness to embrace uncertainty, but those things have been rewarded with the thrill of coffee in a Paris café, a ramble through the streets of Rome, a magical dinner in Buenos Aires and more unforgettable adventures.
For Jo P. from Lino Lakes, Minn., adventure began at her desk. Inspired by the Dean Koontz book, “A Big Little Life” about the author’s adopted dog, the 79-year-old resolved to write a memoir about her own adopted Labrador retriever and the change she brought to Jo’s life. Jo describes the thrill of seeing her book published and the scary-but-exciting exercise of reading from it at an open-mic night, affirming that taking a risk and making oneself vulnerable can sometimes lead to real joy.
There were so many more entries that brought smiles to our faces. Multi-country solo bike journeys. Competitive ice dancing. Bridge lessons. Camping with grandchildren. Helping to rebuild Lahaina. Singing in a traveling choir. Searching for a Kirkland’s Warbler. Enjoying meals with good friends. Kayaking, canoeing and hiking. Getting on a trapeze!
To everyone who shared their adventures with us, thank you. Age Adventurously Day will be back again next year, June 8, 2027, and we look forward to hearing how you’ll celebrate it. But you don’t have to wait until then to try something different — every day is a good day for adventure!
Jo P. from Lino Lakes, Minn.
“There were so many more entries that brought smiles to our faces.”
