Adult education gives seniors a passport to learning
By Sande Snead CONTRIBUTING WRITER
eBay can be fun and a way to make a little money. This session will use lecture, handouts and overheads to demonstrate the basics of buying and selling on eBay. A book about eBay will be available for use during the class. Learn to find the items you want, make a bid and complete the transaction. Learn to sell items, write descriptions, set prices, receive payment, deal with buyers and ship. Due to time limits and school Internet regulations, this class will not involve hands-on use of a computer.

Elli Morris/Chesterfield Observer Frances Wright has learned how to market and sell the dolls she makes through classes offered by the Super Senior Passport program.

Chesterfield Technical Center, 10101 Courthouse Road Tues., Feb. 20, 3-6 p.m.

The course description above for an eBay Buying and Selling Workshop is just one of several choices Chesterfield seniors enrolled in the county's Super Senior Passport program can choose from.

The Super Senior Passport is a program that provides county residents 60 and older with a plastic card, entitling them to free admission to all county sporting and theatrical events. It also allows them to choose from a myriad of courses offered by the county's Parks and Recreation Department and Chesterfield County Public Schools' (CCPS) Office of Adult Continuing Education for just $10-60 per course.

Registration for the courses began Jan. 8. Most courses begin in February.

"There are courses designed specifically with seniors in mind such as AAA Driving and Retirement and Finances," said Debra Marlow, CCPS director of community relations. "However, seniors can take just about any of the courses in the adult education brochure on a space-available basis."

Frances Wright, 68, has taken full advantage of the passport program over the last two years. She's taken classes in photography, HTML, eBay buying and selling, how to do business over the Internet and more.

"I've used many of the classes to help sell dolls that I make," Wright said. "I used the photography class to learn to take pictures of the dolls, move them into documents, enlarge the photos or make them smaller and to add text."

Wright gets the dolls from craft stores and makes their clothes out of dollar bills. She doesn't destroy the money, so it is legal. She tried selling them on eBay for a while, but now is working on building her own Web site to market them there instead.

"I do work now, but I get off at 1:30 [p.m.] so I have time on my hands," she said. "And for $10 for a course, you can't beat the price!"

The only courses that do not offer reduced Super Senior Passport fees are Workforce Education courses in career-oriented classes such as Dental Assisting II and Nurse Aide.

In addition to Super Senior Passport-specific courses, there are special interest classes in everything from golf to cha-cha and arts and crafts classes covering reupholstery to jewelry making. Seniors can learn French, German, Italian or Spanish or take a course in sign language. There are home improvement, self improvement, business, computer and even GED courses offered as well. All of these adult education classes are open to Super Senior Passport members for a minimal class fee.

The Super Senior Passport program has been in operation for a decade and there are more than 4,000 people in the program's database. Not all of these members take courses, however.

Continuing education courses are held at Beulah United Methodist Church, the Chesterfield Technical Center and a number of high schools including Clover Hill, L.C. Bird, Manchester, Meadowbrook, Midlothian, Monacan and Matoaca.

Seniors who wish to obtain a Super Senior Passport should call 748-1405. For more information on adult courses, call Adult Continuing Education at 768- 6140 or visit www.chesterfield.k12.va.us and click on "community" and then "adult learning."