Programs

Kamloops Adult Learners Society (KALS) is a community of actively engaged learners who are interested in exploring and understanding a broad range of topics, sharing ideas, and meeting others who have similar interests. Classes are usually two hours in length and are single-session or multi-session of two to ten weeks duration.

Membership is required to register. For more information about membership, click here.

How To Register for Courses

On-line by clicking the online registration button:

In person on McArthur Island at 1550 Island Parkway Dr. through-out the semester during office hours Monday-Friday 9am-4pm (Closed from 12pm-1pm). Credit, cash or cheque

Register by Phone by Calling 1-250-376-1525

*Single session courses are non-refundable. Multi session courses are refundable with a $10 cancellation fee.

Spiritual Care: Compassionate Listening in Clinical Settings
Cost: $10
Min: 10
Max: 30

Single Session

Multi Session

A hospital admission comes with a wide variety of experiences. For some, while in hospital, a new diagnosis or change in care plan means that a patient or the patient’s family are processing far more than anticipated. Spiritual Care addresses the internal dynamics of meaning-making and re-centering ourselves with purpose. In a hospital setting, a Spiritual Health Practitioner is invited to join the care team when a patient or family member consents to more conversation about their diagnosis, death, or changing capacities. This offering of care in Canada has been long-standing, as 2025 marked 100 years for the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care. Here in Kamloops, spiritual care has been available at Royal Inland Hospital (RIH) for nearly 30 years. Emotional support, spiritual care, or religious liaising looks different for every patient. In this course, you will hear from Jane Gingrich, Spiritual Health Practitioner, about spiritual care with RIH in Kamloops. She will also point out local research people have access to.

Instructor: Jane Gingrich

Jane Gingrich

Jane Gingrich (she/her) was born and raised in BC. Her undergraduate studies were completed at UBC (BA); then Masters degrees with Lutheran Theological Seminary Saskatoon (MDiv) and University of Calgary (MEd). However, Jane credits some of her greatest education with global travel in settings where the intersectionality of Roman Catholicism, Islam, and traditional Voodoo religious expressions cohabitated within families. Joy in learning from experience and deeply listening to folk of all expressions drew Jane from her more-than-ten years as a Lutheran pastor into the role of Spiritual Health Practitioner with Royal Inland Hospital. When not at work, Jane is playing with her children, gardening, organizing community programming, volunteering with newcomers, hiking, sipping tea, or playing board games.

Location: Kamloops Sports Council – 1550 Island Parkway Dr.
Dates:
Thursday April 9, 2026 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
The Power of Words: Censorship and Defending the Freedom to Read
Cost: $10
Min: 10
Max: 40

Single Session

Multi Session

Books open doors to ideas, history, and understanding, but today, those doors are closing.  Across North America, efforts to ban or restrict books are growing, from school libraries to public collections.  Even Canada is seeing challenges to what we can read.  This talk will cover why the freedom to read matters, the challenge of balancing inclusion and free expression, and what censorship looks like today in Canada and the USA.  It will explore notable cases, the rise of mass book challenges, and how librarians and advocates are fighting back.  Discover what’s at stake, the controversies, and how we can protect the right to read for everyone.

Instructor: Brenda Smith

Brenda Smith

Brenda Smith is the Open Education Librarian at Thompson Rivers University. She supports the MA in Human Rights and Social Justice program and works with the Philosophy, History, and Politics and the Environment, Culture, and Society departments. Brenda is passionate about open education, making learning resources accessible to everyone, and protection the freedom to read.

Location: Kamloops Sports Council – 1550 Island Parkway Dr.
Dates:
Monday April 13, 2026 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Gardengate Tour
Cost: $10
Min: 8
Max: 12

Single Session

Multi Session

Participants in this on-site tour will have an opportunity to explore the grounds of this horticultural garden and learn about Gardengate’s use of sustainable practices for growing. The tour will enhance your understanding of the program, which entails mental health, volunteerism, and food security.  The tour will also include the newer commercial kitchen, which incorporates the Food Hub program. The building also houses existing programming and a wide variety of community groups.

Instructor: Rob Wright

Rob Wright

Rob has worked in the social service field since 1997. During his youth, his family owned a small farm in the Fraser Valley, and generations on both sides of his family have been farmers. Those two parts of his life came together at Open Door Group’s program, Gardengate. Since Rob began working at Gardengate in 2006, he has seen the program undergo huge changes – in the community development work they do, in mental health awareness, and in the construction of their new building. Rob has a passion for growing, and eating, and hopes to ensure others in our community can do the same. He was involved with the Kamloops Food Policy Council as a board member from 2015 to 2021 and remains connected to the community food action programs they currently operate. He hopes to see the next chapter at Gardengate, continue to meet dynamic people through Gardengate’s programming, and see an increase in local, sustainable food production and processing.

Location: Gardengate, 915 Southill St., Kamloops
Dates:
Wednesday April 15, 2026 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Come to the Concert: Infinite Bach
Cost: $10
Min: 8
Max: 35

Single Session

Multi Session

This Come to the Concert’s title, Infinite Bach, may appear exaggeration at first, but isn’t in reality. Composers of all times and traditions have revered Bach’s works and have turned to Bach for melodic inspiration and structural innovation. His musical gifts seem inexhaustible — infinite.  This concert’s ensemble of strings, oboe and bassoon play the music of Canadian composers Mathieu Lussier, and Marjan Mozetich.  The high point of the concert, however, lies in Infinite Bach Recomposed, the work of Norwegian composer Johan Ullén, who reimagines Baroque keyboard and violin concertos of Bach.  This will be an opportunity to consider once more the issue of “recomposition.”

Instructor: Rod Michell

Rod Michell

Rod has a Masters degree in English Language and Literature from Oxford University, and has had a lifelong interest in classical music. In 1970 Rod joined the newly opened Cariboo College as Chair of the English Department and taught for a further 38 years. Retiring in 2008, Rod joined KALS and has taught many multi-session courses on the classics of Western literature, including the Ancient Greek and Roman periods and the Middle Ages. The “Come to the Concert” series grew from Rod’s work writing programme notes for the Kamloops Symphony concerts.

Location: Kelson Hall, 330 St. Paul St.
Dates:
Thursday April 16, 2026 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Findhorn Sanctuary
Cost: $10
Min: 10
Max: 40

Single Session

Multi Session

Machii is eager to share her reflections on the inside of Findhorn Sanctuary, taking us into the planning and poetry behind building an intentional community. From forty pound cabbages, Devas & Elements to co-creation, Machii highlights moments of insight that shine an encouraging light forward in building a community based on love.

Instructor: Michelle McGauchie

Michelle McGauchie

Michelle (Machii) holds a MFA, PG Diploma and an OCAD. As a neurodivergent, Machii takes delight in having her fingers in many pies. Her background includes work as a visual artist, filmmaker, teacher a qualified psychosynthesis therapist. She is also an accredited energy healer, medical intuitive and somatic bodyworker. Although nomadic by nature, Machii has made Kamloops her home. In her years of wandering, she lived for twelve years in the Spiritual Ecovillage of Findhorn in northeast Scotland—revelling in the magic and mischief of nature.

Location: Kamloops Sports Council – 1550 Island Parkway Dr.
Dates:
Friday April 17, 2026 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Why and How to Xeriscape, and What’s in it for You?
Cost: $10
Min: 10
Max: 40

Single Session

Multi Session

We will look at the benefits of reducing, but not eliminating altogether, the amount of water we use in our gardens.  We will also discuss principles and tips for doing this.  In addition, we will look at issues around the use of mulch while considering the FireSmart principles.

Instructor: Fearon Blair

Fearon Blair

Fearon Blair is a Master Gardener with many years of gardening experience. She is very concerned about our changing climate, and especially about keeping our rivers healthy and available to support us as well as all the other living things that depend on the rivers.

Location: Kamloops Sports Council – 1550 Island Parkway Dr.
Dates:
Monday April 20, 2026 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Update on Green Burial and Related topics
Cost: $10
Min: 10
Max: 40

Single Session

Multi Session

The class will offer us an overview of progress being made in green burials, in Kamloops specifically but not exclusively, as well as opening discussion on any of our questions around death and dying, including MAID.

Instructor: Emily Bootle

Emily Bootle

Emily is a licensed funeral director in British Columbia who also shares her death work knowledge with Douglas College End-of-Life Doulas. She has served on the board of the Green Burial Society of Canada between 2019 and 2022. Her areas of expertise include Eco-Conscious DeathCare, Family led Funerals, Supporting Deaths in the Margins and DeathCare for Our Little Ones.

Location: Kamloops Sports Council – 1550 Island Parkway Dr.
Dates:
Tuesday April 21, 2026 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Horticulture Experiences in Kenya and Haiti
Cost: $10
Min: 10
Max: 30

Single Session

Multi Session

In December of 2011, Greg was invited to join a team traveling to Kenya to help survey 4,000 acres for possible community gardens the following January. This opportunity led to many return trips to Kenya (and one trip to Haiti). Greg will share his experiences traveling with teams from Canada to begin construction of the gardens and to teach skills (such as tree climbing with a harness on a rope and working with a chainsaw) over the many trips that continued this work. Come hear stories of the people he has met and his experiences sharing his skills and knowledge building sustainable agricultural gardens and instructing on the pruning and care of tropical trees that provide food and shade. Working with Mully Children’s Family, an orphanage and vocational school located southeast of Nairobi, his goal is to train an instructor who can take over his job.

Instructor: Greg Houghton

Greg Houghton

Greg Houghton is a horticulturist, ISA Certified Arborist, Tree Worker, and qualified Tree Risk Assessor. He recently retired after 19 years with the City of Kamloops as a Municipal Arborist. He now says he is “retreaded” to practise his trade as a self-employed arborist. He has been in the horticulture/arboriculture business for over 40 years and has observed both changes in the landscape of the urban forest. When the opportunity arises, he helps others learn to prune, plant and care for trees. Greg is married, with 4 children and 5 grandchildren.

Location: Kamloops Sports Council – – 1550 Island Parkway Dr.
Dates:
Wednesday April 22, 2026 1:30 am – 3:30 am
Tanzania
Cost: $10
Min: 10
Max: 40

Single Session

Multi Session

In this presentation, Bruce and his family travel to Arusha and northern Tanzania on a series of safari excursions to various wildlife and national parks, including the famous Ngorongoro Crater. They meet with local inhabitants and experience their widely varying lifestyles.

Instructor: Bruce Thomson

Bruce Thomson

Bruce is a retired instructor from TRU. He has an entrenched case of wanderlust and loves to travel both on and off the beaten path (but prefers off the beaten path). He has been fortunate in his to have life travelled to visit or to work in many countries in Asia, the Americas Europe and Africa. In the past few years, Bruce has shared his travel adventures with several KALS classes.

Location: Kamloops Sports Council – 1550 Island Parkway Dr.
Dates:
Friday April 24, 2026 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Defending Canada’s Far North
Cost: $10
Min: 10
Max: 50

Single Session

Multi Session

We are welcoming Denis back to present the government of Canada’s proactive approach to safeguarding Canada’s in the rapidly changing Far North in terms of environmental challenges, geopolitical manoeuvring, indigenous population considerations and military developments.

A zoom class, so you can enjoy the presentation in the comfort of your home or in the company of others at KSC.

Instructor: Denis Thompson

Denis Thompson

Major-General (retired) Denis Thompson served 39 years in the Canadian as an infantry officer deploying at home and abroad in Cyprus, Germany, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Egypt. He was in command of NATO’s Task Force Kandahar (2008/09), Canada’s Special Operations Forces (2011-2017) and the Multinational Force & Observers in the Sinai (2014-2017). Since retirement, Denis has lectured at various Canadian universities, and he is a Senior Mentor and Instructor at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto. He remains engaged in veterans’ charities including the Concussion Legacy Foundation Canada and Aman Lara (resettlement of Afghan interpreters).

Location: Kamloops Sports Council – 1550 Island Parkway Dr.
Dates:
Monday April 27, 2026 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Come to the Concert: A walk to Beethoven
Cost: $10
Min: 8
Max: 35

Single Session

Multi Session

The Ode to Joy, the final movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 (1824), is one of the world’s best-known pieces of classical music. Much less well-known, however, is his 1808 Choral Fantasy for piano, mixed chorus and orchestra, which is often seen as an early precursor of his later setting of Schiller’s Ode to Joy. Other works this session of Come to the Concert will examine are A Walk to Beethoven by Swedish composer, Britta Byström, A Guest on these Lands by Canadian composer T. Patrick Carrabré, and the ever-popular Divertissement by Ibert.

Instructor: Rod Michell

Rod Michell

Rod has a Masters degree in English Language and Literature from Oxford University, and has had a lifelong interest in classical music. In 1970 Rod joined the newly opened Cariboo College as Chair of the English Department and taught for a further 38 years. Retiring in 2008, Rod joined KALS and has taught many multi-session courses on the classics of Western literature, including the Ancient Greek and Roman periods and the Middle Ages. The “Come to the Concert” series grew from Rod’s work writing programme notes for the Kamloops Symphony concerts.

Location: Kelson Hall 330 St. Paul St.
Dates:
Thursday April 30, 2026 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Fibonacci Numbers, Spirals and the Golden Ratio
Cost: $10
Min: 10
Max: 40

Single Session

Multi Session

Adored by mathematicians, the Fibonacci numbers have surprising connections to many aspects of life, such as music, technology and growth patterns exhibited in nature. Join us for an exploration of how these numbers give rise to beauty and efficiency across many disciplines — no prior knowledge is necessary.

Instructor: Kyle Schlitt

Kyle Schlitt

Kyle Schmitt earned his PhD in mathematics from the University of Alberta in 2017. After teaching Adult Basic Education for two at Camosun College, he returned to central Alberta to spend four year teaching post secondary courses at Red Deer Polytechnic. In 2022, he moved to Kamloops, where he now works as Assistant Teaching Professor at TRU. He enjoys sharing the beauty of mathematics through his teaching and outreach.

Location: Kamloops Sports Council – 1550 Island Parkway Dr.
Dates:
Monday May 4, 2026 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
KALS Winter 2026 Calendar Available on Website – December 19th, 2025 REGISTRATION WILL OPEN – January 5th, 2026 @ 9 am

How To Register for Membership

On-line by clicking the online registration button:

In person on McArthur Island at 1550 Island Parkway Dr. through-out the semester during office hours Monday-Friday 9am-4pm (Closed from 12pm-1pm). Credit, cash or cheque

Register by Phone by Calling 1-250-376-1525