A friend recently suggested to me that a community is only as good as its army of volunteers. My friend was frustrated that in their own community, finding volunteers has become increasingly difficult, yet they have often heard me bragging about the culture of volunteering that can be found in my community, the Municipality of Meaford.
There is no doubt that volunteers help make a community thrive, whether it be the volunteers that help out at the local hospital, or those who organize and run local events, or the firefighters who are always at the ready to respond when their pagers sound the alarm.
One of the things that has always impressed me from the very moment I moved in to this municipality 20 years ago was the many volunteers who help drive this community. As a new resident of Meaford in 2005, it seemed that everyone I met was a volunteer of some sort, whether it be helping out with the annual Scarecrow Invasion & Family Festival, or assisting with the efforts of the local food bank.
Prior to moving here, I had done my share of volunteering – or so I had thought. I had taken part in community cleanup initiatives from time to time, and I had volunteered to collect non-perishable goods for the food bank a time or two, but being wrapped up in family and career, the amount of time I had available for volunteering was fairly limited.
Once in Meaford, I found the volunteer spirit here to be contagious, and I was inspired by my friends and neighbours in this town who frequently offered their services for a wide range of initiatives.
So, after moving to Meaford in the autumn of 2005, the following spring I began volunteering with the Meaford Farmers’ Market, something I would continue to do for six years, eventually becoming a part of the market board and market manager. While that volunteer work was valuable to me as it helped to focus on the wisdom of buying our food as locally as possible, and it helped bring farmers and other food producers directly to consumers, it was also a great way to meet people in my new community.
There is a comfort that comes with living in a community where volunteering is the norm. No matter the issue, there is someone standing by to offer help.
New residents have contacted me a number of times hoping that I can connect them with a local organization, or to opportunities to volunteer in their new community, and every time I receive such a request, I am reminded of the value that volunteering has brought to my own life.
I was also reminded of the value of volunteers during this week’s council meeting, during a presentation to council by the Christmas on the Bay volunteers, many of whom volunteer with a number of local organizations. It was noted that, for the Christmas on the Bay event alone, volunteers put in some 2,000 hours last year, a significant commitment of time and energy all to run an event that brings joy to the community, and brings tourists in to spend those important dollars.
In this week’s newspaper you will see an article about this year’s Scarecrow Invasion & Family Festival, another major event in this community driven by a large team of hundreds of volunteers.
The local events that we all love the most simply would not happen without volunteers. From the Santa Claus parade to the Scarecrow Invasion, to the Summerfest that we have enjoyed in recent years, none would happen at all if folks weren’t willing to give their time and energy in order to make it happen.
Volunteers are worth celebrating indeed.
But back to the frustration expressed by my friend that they just can’t seem to find volunteers in their community. My friend is not alone, as volunteering generally has been on the decline. Fewer people have the time to dedicate to volunteering in their communities, and for many organizations in many communities it is a growing problem.
A 2022 Statistics Canada report found that a significant percentage of organizations today struggle with volunteer shortages, as well as the retention of volunteers. In today’s world, many are struggling to simply get by, sometimes working more than one job to do so, while others find maintaining a work-family balance to be a difficult challenge itself, leaving little time to volunteer. One of the things most required in order to volunteer is free time, a luxury not enjoyed by as many in today’s world.
As the decline in volunteering continues, many will feel the impact, so we should feel fortunate in this community to have such a large, thriving base of volunteers, and those volunteers should be celebrated indeed.
As I wrote a year ago, giving back to your community with your time, with your skills, helps to build stronger communities, and the time invested is typically as rewarding for the volunteer as it is to the greater community. Without volunteers there would be very few public events to enjoy, there would be nobody to offer compassion and assistance to the homeless, or to those who work hard but are struggling to put food on the table in an era where particularly the lowest wages have not kept pace with inflation for decades.
Some communities, like the community in which my friend lives, are definitely feeling the impact of the decline in voluntarism, and we can only hope that Meaford’s culture of volunteering continues to thrive for many years to come.
For the past several years we have included a special feature in our print newspaper called ‘Caught in the Act of Volunteering’. Readers submit a photo of a volunteer, or group of volunteers in action, along with a blurb about who they are and the important volunteer work that they do, and we publish it in our weekly print newspaper. Over the years we have featured many of this community’s volunteers, and I always enjoy receiving the submissions for that feature, and I am hoping to see more of them this year.
You can make a submission for the ‘Caught in the Act of Volunteering’ feature by sending me an email at editor@themeafordindependent.ca
