CSB Hosts Annual Summer Elderhostel Program

03/30/2006

Find out about Australia, poets Seamus Heaney and Robert Frost and Jesus’ family tree during the 29th annual Elderhostel Program June 4-9 at the College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph.

Elderhostel is an international program for adults ages 55 and older. A younger person may come as a companion to an older person attending the program.

The Elderhostel at CSB program begins with a dinner at 5 p.m. June 4 at McGlynn’s, Haehn Campus Center. Participants are housed and fed on campus, and attend three 70-minute classes each day at Margretta Hall. The event closes with a lunch at 12:30 p.m. June 9.

The classes are:           

• “A Walk About the Land Down Under: Images of Australia,” taught by CSB/Saint John’s University geology/biology professor Larry Davis. Davis recently returned from a semester taught teaching in Australia. The class includes an overview of Australia’s human history, and explores the island continent’s spectacular landscape.
• “Ireland and New England: The Voices of Seamus Heaney and Robert Frost,” taught by CSB/SJU associate professor of education Art Spring. The course examines what Frost’s New England and Heaney’s Ireland say to each other (Heaney often acknowledged his debt to Frost).
• “Skeletons in the Closet: Who’s Who in Jesus’ Family Tree? (Matthew 1:1-17),” taught by Theresa Lafferty, who is completing her doctoral dissertation at The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. She says the class will discuss “who makes the cut in Jesus’ family tree, why Matthew chose to include them and how each figures into the story of who Jesus is: to Matthew, to his community and to us. Please bring a Bible to class.           

From June 5-8, evening sessions will be held. They include:

• June 5, Psychologist Ron Baenninger, husband of CSB president MaryAnn Baenninger, speaks on the benefits of yawning;
• June 6, a bus excursion to Clemens Rose Garden and Munsinger Park, located next to the Mississippi River in St. Cloud;
• June 7, a lecture by S. Mary Rachel Kuebelbeck, RN, on exercises that can change your life, and/or a Book Lover’s Night;
• June 8, Rosamond Spring speaks on “Joyce Kilmer is my Grandfather.” Spring, the wife of Art Spring, is the granddaughter of the poet. She will be the guest speaker at a banquet.

The fee for the program is $520 per person for a double room ($50 extra for a single room), which includes meals.    

Registration is made through Elderhostel, Inc. in Boston. The program number is #13743. You can register by mail (Elderhostel, Inc., 11 Avenue de Lafayette, Boston, Mass., 02111-1746); by fax at 1-877-426-2166; or by phone at 1-877-426-8056.

For questions, please contact S. Lois Wedl, OSB, director of Elderhostel at CSB, by phone at 320-363-5209; or by e-mail .