Seniors virtual bowl in San Francisco's Main Library

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco's Main Library turned into a bowling alley Tuesday, but participants weren't tossing library books.

Scan Health Plan set up several Nintendo Wii consoles and invited seniors from several community centers to a bowling tournament.

The bowlers used a controller to toss a virtual ball down the lane and knock down the animated pins. The competition was intense, but the main goal of the Wii tournament was to get the seniors moving.

"We're really trying to mimic a real bowling alley where the lanes are side by side," said Delena Penner of Scan Health Plan. "They're going through the motions of swinging their arms like you usually do in bowling. Boosting physical activity is one of our key goals here."

And so is exposing seniors to technology that they don't often use. Holding a virtual bowling tournament also kept the the group from getting injured.

Scan is a nonprofit health plan serving Medicare patients.