Sauk Rapids Senior Living Community Honors Eight Centenarians

SAUK RAPIDS -- Many of us hope we can live to be 100-years-old, and eight woman inside Good Shepard Community have done just that.

The woman were honored Thursday for being a centenarian, which is a person who is 100-years-old or older.

Ida, Doris, Loretta, Viola, Lorraine, Marge, Odelia and Odila will all be celebrating a birthday this year.

Ida is the oldest member of the group and will turn 104 in December. She says her first memory was when she was three back in 1918.

That was when the solider's came home from World War I with the Spanish Flu. People were starting to die in our community and the nurse was going around vaccinating people.

Ida says her secret to her long life is good genes and staying active.

I led exercise classes until I was 100 before I decided to quit. But I could kick as high as anyone.

Being a centenarian is rare. In 2014, only .02% of the population in the United States were a centenarian.