AURORA, Colo. — This Memorial Day, residents at Veterans Community Living Center at Fitzsimons had the chance to visit our nation's historic memorial sites thanks to virtual reality.
Using Rendever, an immersive technology, these Aurora seniors can travel around the world and make new memories with each other.
"It's awesome to put on the headsets and take them somewhere and have them just be overwhelmed by what they see and where they can go and all the different options that they have," said Melissa Blair-O'Shaughnessy, recreation therapy director at Veterans Community Living Center at Fitzsimons.
The virtual adventures range from hiking the Grand Canyon to being in a race car, bringing laughter and awe into these veterans' lives.
- Blaire-O'Shaughnessy shares more about the VR technology in the video player below
"This I like because before I came here, my wife and I traveled a lot, and she's a photographer, so we went to a lot of places and we did a lot of picture taking... So when I couldn't do that anymore, I missed it a lot. This helps fill that gap," said Marvin Rist, a Vietnam veteran.
Surrounded by other veterans, Rist said his fellow residents understand the sacrifices made during their time in service and the emotions that come with returning home.
"It is a hard day, but part of being a veteran, I think, is you learn how to deal with the PTSD and stuff. They'll teach you to make a case, a file case where we can file the bad things away. You don't ever forget them… you can pull them up when you need to and deal with them and put them back," Rist said.
While flags waved outside of the center to honor our nation's heroes on Memorial Day, Rist and several others used virtual reality to help pay their respects.
"It is amazing to be able to share with them and give them an opportunity to reflect, not only on their service, but servicemen and women that they served with that are no longer with us. Just an opportunity to share their emotion if they choose to or talk about it with their peers, people that can relate to their loss," Blair-O'Shaughnessy said.
The veterans share with each other what they are seeing and the memories associated with certain sights.
"We can talk through it, and this is just another outlet to let us remember that there is an outside world and people out there. And life goes on as it does in here, you keep living, but something like this, you're still there, so much to see. We just, we haven't been able to see, and because of technology, that we can go there and thank God for technology," Rist said.
Veterans Community Living Center at Fitzsimons was able to get the Rendever system thanks to a resident donation and funds from the community and other veteran organizations, including the Disabled American Veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars.
The center has availability and is also welcoming volunteers. For details, visit this website.
