Filling the volunteer void
Consider all there is to love about this community. Now consider all the volunteer hours that went into making it happen.
It is surprising, upon close consideration, to what degree volunteers are responsible for the quality of life this community enjoys.
The skating rink at Station on the Green opened Wednesday, and there’s Thom Paterson putting nets over the windows to protect them from flyaway hockey pucks after having made the rink; A free access outdoor rink created by volunteers. The Station on the Green itself is managed by volunteers, as is the medical centre and the tennis club.
Even the village’s gardens are maintained by volunteers.
There is a long list of clubs for people of all ages covering a variety of interests, from curling to robotics, all run by volunteers.
Local events are mostly all volunteer run. We have an above-average number of high-calibre arts and entertainment opportunities for a village of this size and it’s all thanks to volunteers.
Even committees of council are stacked with volunteers, people who attend evening meetings to share their opinions and expertise, for no reward other than to contribute meaningfully to their community.
Sometimes the volunteers are business owners or parents or retirees, whatever the case, they give this community a boost.
The volunteer workforce has set the bar pretty high. There are some highly qualified, energetic people who have elevated the level of programs and clubs. It is undoubtedly because of the demographic here; people who retired from good jobs and moved to the country to retire but found they wanted to do something “more” and they were too young and healthy to slow down.
A study found that of the 12.5 million Canadians who volunteer, 34 per cent are baby boomers (born between 1945 and 1964), making this demographic group the most active volunteers.
Our communities were built on a strong sense of “volunteerism” but we suspect that word was rarely used to describe their community work. The baby boomers, having experienced solid long-term employment, good pay and early retirement opportunities were perfectly poised to transfer their labour to the volunteer sector. The next generation has less job stability and suffers from a perpetually poor economy so they will find themselves working much later in life, especially as lives are getting longer and longer.
So what happens to the baby boomer volunteers when they burnout or find they are not well enough to keep up the pace?
There will have to be a new group of volunteers coming up the ranks or we will have to change the way this community operates. The problem is there are fewer of the next generation and there are big shoes to fill.
Many existing groups are looking for people to step in and fill voids so in this New Year, we should all consider those clubs and services we can’t live without and resolve to put in a few volunteer hours.
