When citizens attend the emergency meeting on March 28 at the Innisfail Aquatic Centre to consider the uncertain future of the Innisfail Minor Football Association they might also want to pause to think about the troubles facing many more local volunteer organizations.There is a crisis in town with volunteerism. It never used to be that way. Times have changed, and many groups today are struggling to stay alive.
Yes, as the long cherished Scout motto declares – Be Prepared. "And for what?” someone once asked Scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell more than 100 years ago. He replied, "Why, for any old thing.”
That "thing” could be the fall of many more critically important non-profit agencies in town and throughout the region -- one by one.
And that includes the 1st Innisfail Scouts, a sadly diminished outfit that is perilously close to folding unless more volunteers step up.
Gary Patrick, the 78-year-old local Scouting group commissioner, attended the Spring Registration and Information Night on March 6. He manned a booth with Beaver scouter Heather Reynolds and her young son Connor, a member of the Beaver program. Patrick noted 10 years ago the local Scouting program had a total of 50 members for all five levels. Today there are only about 30. The reason, said Patrick, was the lack of volunteers to help out with the program, which meets on Tuesday evenings at the United Church from Sept. 1 to the end of April.
"A lot of today’s problems are because many people have children involved in too many activities,” said Patrick, who can be reached at 403-227-6768 if any citizen wants to help the Scouting program. "For me that is a logical reason. They have too many things going on.”
Thankfully, the troublesome volunteerism issue is not lost on the Town of Innisfail. Karen Bradbury, the town’s community and social development coordinator, also had a booth at Spring Registration night. Bradbury has worked tirelessly to recruit volunteers for the community. But the numbers are just not growing as she prepares to honour the community’s long-standing core of dedicated volunteers next month for National Volunteer Week.
Eighteen months ago the town launched Volunteer Connection on its website (innisfail.ca), a database aimed to connect volunteers and the many community events, activities and organizations that require their services. The goal from the beginning was to recruit 500 volunteers. As of last week only 224 registered.
"We have been stuck at 224 for a while,” said Bradbury, adding it’s imperative new and younger citizens seize a volunteer opportunity. "Some of our older volunteers are just getting tired.”
Retiring from volunteerism after decades of unselfish service is reasonable. Losing valuable programs because we can’t replace them is not.
Johnnie Bachusky is the editor of the Innisfail Province.
