RUMFORD — The Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing hosted a workshop Tuesday evening at the Rumford Hospital for cancer survivors and friends of cancer survivors to make hula hoops for exercising.

Sue Beaudoin and her daughter Mindy Beaudoin helped participants craft hula hoops from black plastic pipe and colored athletic tape. They advised attendees to heat up the pipe so it “softens each end of the pipe and makes it easier to push the two ends together and make the hoop.”

Sue Beaudoin suggested boiling hot water as a heat source.

“By pouring about 10 ounces of water inside of the pipe before taping it up, it weighs down the hoop and makes it better for exercising,” Mindy Beaudoin said. Or if the extra weight is not wanted then it can be left out.

After they showed the group how to connect the pipe together, the Beaudoins handed out two rolls of colored tape to each person and had them wrap the tape around the hoop to make a design.

Sue Beaudoin said she and her daughter have been making hula hoops from scratch for about three years.

“I got the idea from going to music festivals,” Beaudoin said. “I saw people walking around and using them, and they told me how you can make your own hula hoop."

The Beaudoins and those who attended the event traded different ideas for the homemade hoops.

Sue Beaudoin said glow-in-the-dark tape is another option.

Peggy Hanley joked, “If I got glow-in-the-dark tape, I'd walk up and down the street hula hooping.”

The Beaudoins also said they make great Christmas gifts for children or loved ones who are looking for a new way to exercise.

“When I started making them, it was just one every now and then as a favor to a friend,” Sue Beaudoin said. “Now, I've made about 35 of them for different people in the last month.”

mdaigle@sunjournal.com