At this school, having fun is expected

MARCHING ON: After 37 years at the helm of the nonprofit Barrington Community School, Sandi Tinyk still has no interest in slowing down. / PBN PHOTO/ PAUL E.  KANDARIAN
MARCHING ON: After 37 years at the helm of the nonprofit Barrington Community School, Sandi Tinyk still has no interest in slowing down. / PBN PHOTO/ PAUL E. KANDARIAN

The offerings at the nonprofit Barrington Community School run the gamut from the fundamental, to the fantastic to the foreign. They include learning conversational Spanish, how to make Ukranian pysanky eggs for the holidays, and trips to Costa Rica, Holland, Belgium and England.

And at the school’s helm for the last 37 years is director Sandi Tinyk, a senior citizen at 75 with the energy of someone half her age. She runs a program that began with adult education classes in 1976 and has morphed into one that takes participants pretty much anywhere their minds and bodies care to go.

“It keeps us busy,” said Tinyk about the two-woman operation she runs with assistant Becky Lefebvre out of a small, donated space at Barrington Town Hall. “As soon as the fall brochure is mailed, we begin working on what we’ll offer starting in January.”

In 1978, Tinyk and her husband, George, moved to Barrington from Connecticut, when he started working for Hasbro Inc. It was his idea that his wife find work.

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“I wasn’t looking for a job, I wanted to stay home with our then 10-year-old boy,” she said. “Then the gal who started the school in 1976, Jane Landers, called and asked if I wanted to take over.”

Tinyk had been a social worker in Connecticut for 12 years, working in the adoption field.

“My first inclination was to say ‘no,’ but my husband – and I always remind him of this – said ‘Oh, why don’t you give them a hand, it’ll give you something to do?’ ” Tinyk laughed. “I thought OK, I’ll help out for a year or two.”

That was August 1979, she said, “And I’m still here.”

It was the Barrington League of Women Voters that initially started the school, a group Landers was very active with, Tinyk says. After the school began offering a few adult-education courses, demand for more grew. Children’s activities were added, then day trips, then overnights and international tours.

“The first offerings were things [such as] ballroom dancing, bridge and typing,” she said. “We added more and got off to a great start, offering things to take advantage of the weather, such as outdoor watercolor classes, tai chi outdoors and trips.”

As to the number of people participating in various programs, Tinyk isn’t sure of an exact number but is sure “it’s in the thousands.”

The offerings appeal to a wide demographic, young and old, she said, and remain popular.

“We have a following, a core of people who sign up no matter what,” Tinyk said. “I give a lot of credit for that to many of our teachers who have a following.”

Those teachers and others who work with the school number around 65, she said.

The nonprofit’s annual operating budget is about $500,000, she says, much of it funded by tuition and trip fees, along with donations and occasional grants. Participation varies with the economy, she said, but often picks up in downturns “because people may not go to the Caribbean but will do an overnight to the Philadelphia Flower Show.”

Many programs stay the same, but Tinyk is always looking at new things, particularly ways to attract a younger audience.

“Culinary tours, for example, younger people enjoy those things, and our theater offerings are always popular,” she said. “We try to keep on top of things, doing what people are interested in.”

In the latter months of the year, holiday programs ramp up, including this year’s “A Connecticut Christmas” visit to the Mark Twain House in Hartford, and the annual “Holiday Magic in New York” trip to the Big Apple, Tinyk said. She sometimes works with R.I.-based travel agency Collette on domestic trips.

The faraway trips are popular as well, she said, including one where she rents out a chateau in the south of France, and a recent seven-person, 10-day tour of Iceland. Already planned for 2017 are trips to the Canadian maritime region and Milan and the Italian Lake District.

Feedback is always good, she said, adding “Our trips are small and our participants enjoy the personal attention.”

Tinyk has long been bitten by the travel bug and accompanies three or four of the trips to watch over things and be an informed guide.

“I still love travel, seeing places I haven’t seen and going to more obscure places not on the beaten path,” she said.

Which means that at 75, retirement isn’t in her future.

“What am I going to do, travel in a busman’s holiday?” she laughed. “As long as I can do this, physically and mentally, I will.”

For information on the school, visit www.barrcommschool.com. •

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