This week’s front page story is about the need for new organizers to step forward to take charge of the Ashcroft and District Fall Fair, or the annual event — which started in 1888 — will likely fold.
Apparently there has been no shortage of people willing to step forward and tell the current organizers exactly what’s wrong with the fair and make suggestions about how it should be run going forward, but when it comes time to look for volunteers to actually do the work of running, those people are nowhere to be seen.
The same can be said for so many of our volunteer-run local events, which people are happy to go to (and seemingly happy to criticize), but which struggle to find enough people willing to pitch in and help put them on.
Don’t believe me, or don’t know how much we depend on volunteers? In this week’s paper alone there is an article about volunteer firefighters in Lytton and Loon Lake; a letter to the editor about the volunteer-led Butterflyway gardens in Ashcroft; a column about the importance of volunteers; an article about our many local markets, all of which are organized and run by volunteers; and pictures of Lions Club volunteers selling Smile Cookies in Ashcroft, and local volunteers in Savona cleaning up the beach there.
“Local News Briefs” notes that The Equality Project in Cache Creek is looking for volunteers to help in the kitchen, while the (volunteer) organizers of the Clinton Rodeo are looking for volunteers to help out at the concession, which is raising funds to build a splash park at Reg Conn Park. Nearly a dozen other pieces in the column involve volunteer-run events, from a spring market, a repair café, and a strawberry tea to a community barbecue, an Old Timers’ tea, and an ongoing series of sessions that help people dealing with loss.
As soon as I finish writing this piece and put the paper to bed I’ll be off to a table read for the fall pantomime being produced by the volunteers of the Winding Rivers Arts & Performance Society. Over the weekend I saw Fire Chief Josh White out on his day off, voluntarily preparing the flower planters around town so that volunteers can fill them. On Thursday night I’ll be at the Ashcroft-Cache Creek Rotary Club’s Citizens of the Year event, honouring volunteers in our region (similar events celebrating volunteers were recently held in Clinton and Cache Creek).
Try to picture our communities without volunteers and the things they do, and you end up with a very bleak picture indeed. If you enjoy or make use of any of the things I’ve listed above — teas, markets, plays, barbecues, the Ashcroft Fall Fair, the Clinton Rodeo, the beach at Savona, the butterflyway gardens and the planters full of flowers, the sessions offered by the Hospice Society (and these are just the tip of a very large iceberg) — then please consider volunteering a few hours of your time to help out somewhere.
Many volunteer groups have moved away from the old “meet every second and fourth Wednesday to talk about stuff” model, and are happy to accept people who have a certain skill-set to offer or who have limited time available but want to help out in some way. We’re not talking about a lifetime commitment; we’re talking about a handful of hours a month, or one day or weekend a year. If two hours a week is all the time you have, you’ll be welcomed with open arms.
As for the people who are happy to attend a volunteer-run event and then blithely criticize it afterward, pointing out everything that they would have done differently or better, consider putting your money (or rather your time) where your mouth is, rolling up your sleeves, and getting involved. To paraphrase president John F. Kennedy, “Ask not what your volunteer organizations can do for you; ask what you can do for your volunteer organizations.” Because a world without them is not somewhere I want to live.
