Community enrichment classes debut at BC3 @ Armstrong

(Ford City, PA) Registration ends at 3 p.m. Friday for the first of two noncredit community enrichment classes to debut at the new $6.5 million BC3 @ Armstrong facility in Ford City and as part of Butler County Community College’s Lifelong Learning program.

Community members can register to attend Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a two-hour class that begins at 6 p.m. Monday, at bc3.edu/lifelong-learning or by calling 724-284-8504.

Karlee Holmes, who served as a park ranger at Crooked Creek Lake, will instruct Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and Birding Basics: Winter Visitors on Nov. 13 at BC3 @ Armstrong, 1100 Fourth Ave.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Birding Basics: Winter Visitors cost $25 each.

The 15,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility BC3 @ Armstrong facility opened in March.

Paul Lucas, director of BC3’s Lifelong Learning program, said the introduction of classes at BC3 @ Armstrong represents “another way to engage with the community, and another opportunity to bring the community into the facility.”

“The students were excited about the new building and the community members were excited in a different way. Now they can come in and take classes themselves. They can say, ‘I don’t want to stop. I want to learn more.’”

Karlee Holmes, BC3 instructor

Karen Zapp is director of BC3 @ Armstrong.

“These one-evening nature classes are a perfect way to offer the community a chance to learn and to visit this beautiful new facility,” Zapp said.

Holmes teaches credit courses in biology and environmental biology at BC3 @ Armstrong.

“The students were excited about the new building,” Holmes said, “and the community members were excited in a different way. Now they can come in and take classes themselves. They can say, ‘I don’t want to stop. I want to learn more.’”

Holmes was raised in South Buffalo Township and has been an outdoors enthusiast since age 5, when she first hand-fed deer near Cooks Forest State Park, which spans Clarion, Forest and Jefferson counties, and first saw elk in Elk County.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park borders North Carolina and Tennessee and is the most visited national park in the United States, according to the National Park Foundation. Holmes has visited the park five times since 2019.

“I love the bears,” Holmes said. “There are a ton of bears down there.”

Community members will also learn about attractions, where to take photographs, find streams and waterfalls, and discover why the park is called the salamander capital of the world, Holmes said.

Holmes’ interest in birds was piqued while observing eagles and their nest during her work as a park ranger with the Army Corps of Engineers, she said.

Birding Basics: Winter Visitors “is geared toward beginning birders, and how to get visiting winter birds to your backyard,” Holmes said.

Community members will learn about different types of birds, feeders and how to use software that tracks nearby populations, Holmes said.

“They will get the tools,” Holmes said, “to start birding on their own.”

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