By Benjamin Rothstein

DOVER – The Kent and Sussex County branch of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, a program that allows people 55+ access to college-level classes, held its spring fling on Friday.

Students and teachers alike expressed the sheer variety offered at OLLI, like a class that teaches the Bible through a literary analysis context, or a class that teaches about great women in American history.

“All the classes are taught by volunteers, and it’s fun. It’s a great way to meet people,” said Susan Salkin, vice chair of the Kent/Sussex OLLI council. “And I know that when I first retired, I had a job where I met lots of people on the job, became friends. And so, I had some concern about how I was gonna keep meeting new people. And I heard about OLLI, which was called Osher at the time, and got involved with that, and it’s just been wonderful.”

This year’s spring fling theme was “Hawaiian Murder Mystery,” and had a selection of students and teachers taking up roles while everybody else played detective, asking questions to try and ascertain the true killer.

Many members at the spring fling valued the social aspect of the program just as much as the educational. When COVID-19 came around, the program had to adapt quickly to online learning, something that has stuck around even after many classes moved back to in-person. The spring fling is meant to help replace something that was lost for those attending online.

“One of the great things about this is you can be in class in person, or you can be online, particularly if you’re online you really don’t have the human contact, so (the spring fling) provides that human contact,” said Chair Connie Benko. “And (COVID’s when) we really found out just how important that human contact was. When we went through COVID, and everybody was away from each other, people who just sort of hibernated, it did something to them, both physically and emotionally. And we’re trying to counteract that with this.”

“We all enjoy our classes, but in the class time we just have a few minutes between to talk and this is a group of friends. And that’s what OLLI is,” said Social Committee Co-Chair and Spring Fling organizer Marge Felty. “People of a certain age have difficulty sometimes, particularly if they’re new to an area, making a friend, and this is a very inclusive group.”

The Kent County and Sussex County branches of OLLI were originally separate entities but merged during that time. The combined branch has also teamed up with Delaware’s other branch, in Wilmington, to offer online classes to all OLLI members in the state, increasing the variety of classes and instructors offered.

Classes tend to be held in Dover, Lewes, and Ocean View, with locations varying based on the class. For more information, including how to register, visit https://www.olli.udel.edu/kent-sussex/. There is still time to register for the Spring 2024 session, which begins on April 1.