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Steamboat Springs — About a year ago, Steamboat Springs resident Ann Ross came across a magazine advertisement calling for active senior citizens to contribute to a calendar made by the Humana health care company.

She sent in a picture of herself dancing with the Steamboat Springs African Dance & Drum Ensemble and another of her with a NASTAR Ski Racing medal. And she waited.

"In September or October, they called me and they said, 'You've been chosen as one out of 2,000 people to be in the calendar.' And I said, 'Oh?' And they said, 'Yes, when can we set up a photo shoot for you?'" Ross said.

When she didn't hear back from the company for a few months, Ross figured she hadn't made the final calendar. Then six of them came in the mail, with Ross's African dance photo featured on the November page.

"I don't think I had any ideas of, 'Yes, they'll choose me' or anything," Ross said. "It was just that they ask for senior citizens, and I'm a very active senior citizen."

A hospital volunteer, NASTAR competitor, U.S. Forest Service worker and Steamboat Springs Arts Council docent, Ross emphasized the importance of remaining active as she ages. She does African dancing twice a week to keep her mind and body aligned and healthy.

Ross is applying those principles to a 52-photo journal project featuring active senior citizens in Routt County. In collaboration with the Northwest Colorado Visiting Nurse Association's Aging Well program, Ross said she has recruited about 10 photographers and close to 75 calendar models for the project, which she hopes to have ready for 2010.

"I don't like to see people my age just sort of melt away," Ross said. "Not everybody can African dance or do NASTAR like I do, but there is something they can do.

"So the journal is hopefully going to be 52 active senior citizens in our area, and they're not going to be portraits, they're going to be doing something - skiing or biking or volunteering or playing in the snow with their grandchildren - something active. It'll be people aging gracefully," she said.

Ross hopes to start setting up photos for the calendar this month and have the project ready to print in October.