Brainerd Community Education is abuzz with virtual activities to help weather the pandemic.
By partnering with other area school districts, Brainerd Community Ed is able to offer some unique classes for lakes area residents.
“We’re just constantly looking for new ideas when everybody’s still kind of in that COVID lockdown pause,” Community Education Generalist Jennifer Rushin said during a phone interview.
Any especially popular adult class so far is “Beekeeping for Beginners,” offered through the Walker-Hackensack-Akeley School District, with five Brainerd residents signing up in the first few days of registration.
Amy Riffle, WHA Community Education administrative assistant, used to work with Chris Cruse at the beekeeping supplies company Mann Lake Ltd. in Hackensack. Knowing Cruse also kept his own honeybees, she decided to ask if he would be interested in teaching a class on the topic.
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“I was just trying to come up with something different that maybe would be interesting to people in the community to learn,” Riffle said.
In his virtual class scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 9, Cruse will walk participants through the process of keeping bees and harvesting and bottling honey for both personal use and resale.
Other virtual courses available to adults this winter and spring cover how to make kombucha — a fermented tea — at home, how to deal with the death of a spouse and how to start learning instruments like guitar and piano.
“This is a good way for our community to be involved and not have to leave their houses,” Rushin said, noting virtual offerings may not completely go away in the future, especially for older residents who might not want to go out in the cold or drive at night.
“It offers so much more opportunities for our community to take part in stuff that’s maybe across the state,” she added. “And so one of the hardest things I found in the past is if you have a really good idea, but to try to find an instructor that has that love and that passion doesn’t always mesh, like you might not find the person that wants to truly teach the class, and so this way, with all the lists and the variety of stuff, you have people all over the state that have a passion or a desire to teach that particular subject.”
Community education is hoping to be able to offer in-person instruction this summer, but until then staff is working on ways to offer some sort of virtual activities for kids as well as adults. Rushin said she has spoken with instructors in the metro area who might be able to provide things like science, technology, engineering and math kits that could be sent directly to students’ houses.
To register for community education classes, visit isd181.ce.eleyo.com . For more questions, call 218-454-6924.
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