Riverland Community College’s ALVA Leadership in Retirement program is on hiatus this year because not enough people signed up.

“We’re definitely going to try again,” said Peggy Young, a training and development coordinator at Riverland.

The ALVA program is a nine-month program in which participants over the age of 50 work together on a project that helps the community in some way. It also allows participants to focus on their passions and what they want to do in the second part of their life, according to Young.

“It helps (people) understand where their own interests lie and how to implement it,” Young said.

Participants would plan out a community project, which could be something like starting reading programs in area schools — a project Young said was done at a different college in the past. Everyone who signed up would create, if not implement, a project plan during the nine months for which the project is scheduled.

While this year was going to be the first year Riverland would offer the program, which is part of the Vital Aging Network (VAN), a civic engagement group for people over 50, there weren’t enough people for VAN to sign off on the project at Riverland. Only nine signed up, and VAN requires groups of at least 10.

The project required $750 to sign up, but there were scholarships available for those who couldn’t pay the entire amount.

Young said Riverland would try again next year, keeping in mind everyone who signed up this year.