Want to hone your leadership skills while learning more about Asheville and Buncombe County? Sign up for Leadership Asheville Seniors, a nationally renowned, award-winning program of the North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement. Now in its 20th year, the program offers an in-depth look at the community for participants of all ages. Topics include the history and future of Asheville, economic and neighborhood redevelopment, the changing local rural communities, preservation, affordable housing, air pollution, immigrant workers and more.

“Some 600 people have graduated from the program. When the class is over, participants often go on to tackle volunteer opportunities they discovered through the program,” said Denise Snodgrass, Leadership Asheville Seniors program director. “Graduates have joined the boards of local civic and cultural organizations, become tutors and mentors in the schools and even started their own community activism projects.”

Retired advertising executive Dick Murray participated in Leadership Asheville last year. He is one of the many graduates who was inspired by the curriculum.

“In Leadership Asheville Seniors you meet the people who are making things happen,” Murray said. “And you go to where the action’s at – like a water treatment plant, city council chambers, a tobacco barn, and the back stage at a theater.”

Luther Barnhardt, a recently retired physician, agrees.

“I’ve lived in Asheville for 35 years and thought I knew the community pretty well until I joined Leadership Asheville Seniors,” said Barnhardt. “I had no idea there was so much going on. I must have had blinders on.”

Leadership Asheville Seniors has been so successful that the program has been replicated in communities across North Carolina and the nation. “It’s a model program and we’re fortunate to have it,” said Buncombe County Commissioner Carol Peterson.

Leadership Asheville Seniors is held in eight daylong sessions on Wednesdays from September 13 to November 1. Cost is $240 and includes meals. The registration deadline is Friday, Aug. 18.

For more information or to register, call Leadership Asheville Seniors Program Director Denise Snodgrass at 828/251-6188 or email snodgras@unca.edu.