At David White's first national Senior Olympics, an 84-year-old female swimmer approached the starting blocks in the 200-meter medley event. She left behind a wheeled walker to climb with difficulty onto the starting blocks.

Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette That's David White, executive director of the Pittsburgh Local Organizing Committee for the 2005 Summer National Senior games, surrounded by people who've qualified for those games. From left they are Bernice Vertullo, 70, of Sheraden; Wayne Jelinek, 71, of Sheraden; Dolly Reilly, 74, of Sheraden; Shirley Grab, 70, of South Side; Duke Winkowski, 63, of South Side and Dottie Gire, 69, of Bethel Park. More profiles Today, Your Health presents its annual Dozen Making A Difference, focusing on 12 people in our community who are working to improve our health, our well-being and our futures. Visit our Dozen Making a Difference index page for links to the other profiles.

The UPMC athletic trainer visiting the 1999 games in Orlando, Fla., shuddered to watch.

"I thought she was going to fall off the blocks and sink. Wouldn't you know it -- she won the heat!" White recalled with a laugh. "That's what got the hair standing up on the back of my neck."

The typically exuberant White, experienced until then in dealing primarily with high school and college athletes, has been consumed ever since with the issues of older adults who prefer physical competition to sedentary activities. He helped coordinate the UPMC-led bid to have Pittsburgh chosen to host the 2005 Summer National Senior Games, as the Senior Olympics are formally known.

The board of the Pittsburgh Local Organizing Committee picked White in 2003 to become the committee's executive director, and he has spent 2004 laying the groundwork for some 12,000 athletes 50 and older to swim, run, hurdle, jump, shoot, throw, golf, bowl and more here from June 3-18.

The committee's budget is $2.5 million, and there appear to be about 2.5 million logistical details involved in dealing with the National Senior Games Association, local governments, corporate sponsors and others arranging fund raising, athlete registrations, housing, transportation, competition venues, 3,500 volunteers, evening entertainment and more. White has a staff of eight people to assist him, but he's been working into the evenings and on weekends trying to ensure special treatment of the athletes.

The national competition is held every two years, and in visiting Orlando and the 2001 Senior Olympics in Baton Rouge, La., and 2003 games in Hampton Roads, Va., White didn't sense the kind of community support and festivities for athletes that he wants at the Pittsburgh games. His hopes are based in part on the civic enthusiasm he saw at the International Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 when serving as a volunteer trainer to competitors.

He said the senior athletes' own energy inspires him, and it evidently is working; NSGA officials credit the Pittsburgh committee as further along in its planning at this stage than any recent predecessors.

The downside for White is drastically reduced time spent with his wife and two small children in Mars. His own favorite sport is golf, and he did that less than half the usual amount in 2004. He figures the sacrifice will be worth it if the 84-year-old swimmers and everyone else visiting Pittsburgh in June feels properly treated.