TORRINGTON – Community Education classes have officially begun for the Spring 2022 semester at Eastern Wyoming College.

Every second and fourth Tuesday of the month at 2:30 p.m. sees peers gather to play Hand and Foot, a canasta-type card game. Each participant pays the $3 entry fee, grabs a snack and takes a seat at the table.

Many of the players are regulars, experienced Hand and Footers who are more than willing to help teach newcomers the rules. They might talk trash to each other, but they also might call it keeping each other honest.

Anyone who passes by room 111 of the CTEC building during a game is likely to hear shuffling cards and friends laughing.

“It’s fun, I gotta tell you,” Community Education Director Donna White said. “I love my job. I get to meet lots of new people and I get to teach a few class and I get to participate.”

White has directed the Community Education program for over 10 years now. She took a few classes when she first moved to Torrington in 1998 as a teacher, and when “retirement didn’t stick” as she puts it, the director position opened and she grabbed at the chance to get back into education.

The students are not the only ones learning new skills. White has learned right along with them.

White teaches the ever-popular Instant Pot cooking classes, but that was not always her plan.

After every Instant Pot owner she knew turned down the chance to teach the class, White went out and bought her own Instant Pot. She learned a few recipes and prepared herself to teach. Now, she regularly teaches Instant Pot cooking classes every semester.

Students can not only expand their culinary palettes through EWC’s Community Education courses but also other skills such as fun card games from different cultures and how to train their dogs.

The Zumba and yoga classes offered are always full, coming back year after year for students to enjoy. White is always looking for instructors to teach new and imaginative classes.

This semester, publisher, adjunct Harvard professor and journalist LeeAnne Krusemark will be teaching a series of classes over Zoom as part of the Community Education program. Krusemark will be teaching topics such as how to get published as an author, extreme couponing and how to make money from home as a virtual assistant.

More information about Krusemark’s courses and others is available online at EWC Community Education’s homepage. As classes are always changing and new classes being added (such as a women’s self-defense class being added this spring), call the Community Education office at 307-532-8323 or 307-532-8213 for the latest schedule.

The Community Education program also offers certification courses for certified nursing assistants and commercial driver’s licenses. Starting in February, all those looking to apply for a CDL will be required by law to complete a certification course such as the one at EWC. Luckily, the Pre Hire grant the school recently secured will help qualifying students pay the enrollment fees. Similar grants through the county help pay enrollment fees for qualifying individuals in the CAN program.