FARMINGTON — Goldleaf Institute Senior College will celebrate its 15th anniversary when members gather for their annual meeting and course registration starting at 3 p.m. Wednesday, June 26. It will be held in the Student Center at the University of Maine at Farmington.

Following a short meeting and anniversary cake, an explanation of summer courses and opportunity for questions will be followed by course sign-ups starting at 4 p.m., Eileen Kreutz, Goldleaf office manager, said.

For many years, Goldleaf has offered seniors courses based on learning without stress, ones that are intellectually stimulating and based on the interests of members. The courses offer times of socializing with people with similar interests,  according to its website.

This is the summer for trips with several offered within the listing of courses.

“The curriculum committee felt this was the summer, gas wouldn’t be any cheaper,” she said.

Trips include one to see “Les Miserables” at the Maine State Music Theater, the art museum at Colby College, a bog walk and tour of the composite lab at the University of Maine, the Bangor American Folk Music Festival and other festivals, a visit to North Yarmouth as part of the course, Our Town, and an outing to Oquossoc.

Within the course, Maine Books and Places, participants will travel to the Mexico-Rumford area to view sites mentioned in Monica Wood’s, “When We Were the Kennedys: A Memoir from Mexico, Maine,” she said.

Spanish and Tai Chi courses have been popular and computer classes are filled. A waiting list for extra computer sessions at the end of the term in October is being compiled, she said.

A course on invasive plants and insects taught by Patty Cormier, Maine district forester, is getting a lot of attention, she added. Cormier will also teach one on using a GPS.

Another intergenerational course, Interview With an Object, provides an opportunity for anthropology students at UMF to talk with seniors about an object the senior brings in. It could be a special rock, poem or other item. The students ask seniors questions that fit in with their anthropology studies and the seniors get to know the students, she said. 

A special showing of the film, “Down by the River’s Edge,” is offered free and to the public on Oct. 10. It is Goldleaf’s contribution to UMF’s 150 charter anniversary, Kreutz said.

The first film by local filmmaker Susan Gagnon, it “narrates generational tales of retired papermakers and French-Canadian families… The film details the history of the Otis Mill in Chisholm, Maine, from the 1890s and includes the 2009 closing of the mill. Stories are told of papermakers and their struggles and triumphs, as their families settled together into the trinity of the riverbed community: the Otis Mill, the Androscoggin River, and the St. Rose of Lima Church, where they practiced their Roman Catholic faith, down by the river’s edge,” according to the course listing.

More information and online sign-up is available on the Goldleaf website.

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