Volunteers play a vital role in Burns Lake, and that’s why some events have to be cancelled when there’s not enough of them.Most recently, the Burns Lake and District Seniors Society had to cancel their annual seniors picnic because they couldn’t find enough volunteers to organize the event. But has the number of volunteers actually been declining?
According to Statistics Canada, the share of people aged 35 to 44 who volunteered across Canada decreased by six percentage points from 2010 to 2013. With older Canadians, the proportion who volunteered was virtually unchanged.
While the decline in the volunteer rate may be part of a broader trend across Canada, Sandra Barth, who volunteers in several community organizations and was the winner of this year’s B.C. Community Achievement Award, said the number of volunteers in the Lakes District simply tends to oscillate over time.
“What I think in Burns Lake is that people volunteer for different things at different times during their lives; for example, in a young family, parents tend to volunteer in their children’s programs, such as youth soccer or hockey,” she said.
“If you’re a senior, you tend to volunteer for the Lakes District Food Bank, church projects, Burns Lake and District Healthcare Auxiliary, etc.,” she continued. “Curling, mountain biking, skiing and sledding are examples of special interest clubs that draw on a cross-range of the population for their volunteers.” “In the case of the seniors’ picnic [being cancelled], it might be that June is not a good time to do it due to people travelling or camping or fishing,” she added. “It might be that it got too big and is now perceived to be too much work; or, maybe we just got older and hoped that younger seniors would take up the project.”
Last year, Burns Lake’s Canada Day parade was cancelled due to a lack of volunteers.Randi Amendt, manager of the Burns Lake and District Chamber of Commerce, said this year’s Canada Day committee has “slowly gotten smaller.”
“Our first Canada Day committee meeting back in February had 10 people attending the meeting; our last meeting on May 1 was down to five people.”
However, Amendt said five people is still an improvement from last year’s committee of two people.
“We are still looking for volunteers to help set up in the morning and help clean up in the afternoon,” she said.
Another local group that could benefit from more volunteers, especially the younger ones, is the Burns Lake and District Healthcare Auxiliary. Although the group has dozens of volunteers, their average age is 75.
“We do not have the manpower; our people are getting older and we need younger volunteers,” said Jeanie Reimer, president of the Burns Lake and District Healthcare Auxiliary.
While volunteerism may be down for some volunteer groups in the Lakes District, that hasn’t been the case for the Burns Lake Rotary Club. “This year our club campaigned for new members, and after a lot of work and invites we have had five new members join our club,” said Laura Blackwell, president of the Burns lake Rotary Club. “Our club has been in existence for over 60 some years and we have had about 18 members for a very long time; but this year we promoted our club and went out and invited a whole bunch of people to join and we were successful in recruiting five new members.”
“The Burns Lake Rotary Club has done many great things in the past for the community such as the skate board park, the tennis courts, last year we did a revitalization to the Burns Lake Cemetery and this year our major project will be revitalizing the Rod Reid Trail, without the hard work of volunteers none of this would be possible,” added Blackwell.
If anyone is interested in joining the Burns Lake Rotary Club, they can get a hold of Blackwell at Lakes District News or speak to any Rotarian. To join the Healthcare Auxiliary, visit the Burns Lake Thrift Shop; and to volunteer at the Canada Day celebration, contact the chamber.
Volunteerism good for the economy
According to Burns Lake resident Sandra Barth, without volunteers many events and activities in the Burns Lake area would not exist.
“You only need to look at any edition of the Lakes District News to see articles or ads about things happening in our community because of volunteers,” she said. “No volunteers, no picnic; no rental of the Island Gospel Church; no shopping for groceries or paper goods; no invites to Houston or Fraser Lake senior groups.”
Barth says volunteerism also benefits the local economy “in quiet ways.”
“Obviously, local motels and restaurants benefit directly from hockey tournaments, dog shows, concerts, car shows and other events; but, throughout the year, each of the non-profit clubs have meetings, and following these meeting there is usually a social get-together at A&W or Alternative Grounds or such,” she said.
“Some meetings are catered, and sometimes meetings require a rental space,” she added. “Clubs buy ads in the local paper and have posters printed; and sometimes one just has to have a new dress to go to the wild game banquet or ducks unlimited banquet or the chamber of commerce’s awards gala.”