It's the beginning of the end for a Quad Cities institution. The 40th and final year of CommUniversity will start on Sunday.
The president of the CommUniversity board, Katie Hanson, says the goal for all 40 years was to offer something interesting, educational, and affordable.
"I think it really was a valuable asset to the community. It gave so many people something fun and interesting to do in the month of February which can be kind of a stay indoors and hunker down sort of month around here."
Each year, on the four Sundays during February, between 300 and 600 people would sign up for classes ranging from digital photography, book binding, and Islam, to Sophocles and Shakespeare, and storytelling, to name just a few.
Hanson says it's ending because it's harder and harder to find grants and donations to support it. And they can longer hold it at St. Ambrose University.
"We were looking around for other venues - it has to be free otherwise we can't operate on our budget. And we really couldn't find anything that worked for offering this many classes and that would also be free or very inexpensive."
In addition, CommUniversity is losing some of the key volunteers who've kept going all these years.
A special reception will be held following the final class on Sunday February 24th - past volunteers and board members are all invited to attend.
