Senior students welcomed back to class at Chilliwack ElderCollege

Chilliwack ElderCollege is back in session.

After two years of cancelled courses due to the pandemic, senior students will once again have the chance to dive into popular classes like cooking, genealogy and art.

Many students have been asking when ElderCollege would be opening up and it’s been “stressful” managing their expectations, said Wanda Hook, chair of Chilliwack ElderCollege which offers lifelong learning to folks over the age of 50.

“They are very eager to get back to class,” she said.

Hook, along with past chair Marlene Dance and program committee member Nalla Steigvilas, are three of the volunteers who have pulled together what they’re calling a “soft launch” of ElderCollege.

The 2022 spring semester is a pared-down version of what they typically offer. There are 13 classes beginning in March, down from the average of 30-plus that they normally have.

“We’ve brought back probably our most popular classes that sold out the quickest (in the past) to pique interest,” Dance said.

In the mix are four classes on cooking with Red Seal chef Elizabeth Grimaldi (Vietnamese, Mexican, Iranian and Polynesian), knitting with Debbie Cote and easy walks with Ken Hurley.

Chilliwack ElderCollege is a non-profit organization and it does not receive any grants. The school survives on registration fees and course fees, and the majority of the income goes to pay a co-ordinator which is a part-time, contracted position. They’ve been struggling financially over the past two years because, even though they haven’t hired a co-ordinator for the past two years, they still have expenses.

“Our objective is to try and make enough money from these 13 classes that we can then put it in the bank and hire a co-ordinator and go full bore in the fall,” Hook said.

When their doors closed in March 2020, they had 650 members. Now they’re at about 50 and are hoping that number will increase to help keep ElderCollege going.

They were cautious about when to start up again due to the pandemic, but they needed to bring in money and more membership.

“We didn’t want to open and launch and then get shut down again,” Steigvilas said. “We wanted to wait until it was a better picture.”

“We couldn’t afford to have a false start and have to refund everyone’s money,” Hook added.

But finally, the timing was right. On Feb. 23, registration opened for the spring 2022 semester.

On the first day, they had a phone call from one student who said, “well isn’t this serendipitous, I wondered when you guys would be back,” Hook said with a laugh.

If all the classes get filled up, there will be a little more than 100 folks registered which would give them the income they need to continue on.

For more info and to sign up for ElderCollege, and if you’re over the age of 50, go chilliwackeldercollege.ca, call 604-702-2611, or email elder.college@ufv.ca. Classes begin as early as March 1. Annual membership fees are $15 and course fees range from $50 to $100. Most of the classes will be held at the University of the Fraser Valley Chilliwack campus. Masks must be worn at all times inside the campus and ElderCollege students will need to show proof of vaccination.

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