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Please step up to volunteer

A letter to the editor urging citizens to volunteer in their communities.
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The CBC interviews (Interview provides some insights – Page 4, Nov. 13 issue of the Times) about volunteerism were quite misleading and shallow, probably designed for the five minute shocking sound byte.

They compared one group’s efforts to attract people to its executive to another group’s success at putting volunteers on the ground, effectively comparing apples with oranges. The interviews implied that one group’s recruiting efforts were somehow inadequate, while the other’s efforts were so successful they quadrupled their membership in just three years.

I suspect most community groups in the Boundary (and elsewhere) would agree that the CBC did not try to address what is at the root of the two different results. People can be relatively easily recruited to do the work on the ground for a few hours, then go home, put their volunteer hat on a shelf, put up their feet and watch television or whatever, until the next call comes in for bodies on the ground.

But for presidents, secretaries, treasurers, directors, who handle the nuts and bolts of volunteer organizations week in and week out, there are very few people stepping forward.

So the presidents, secretaries, treasurers and directors are (despairingly) in their 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s! Come on, people, step up! You’ll miss us when we’re gone!

Stephen Kirkham,

President, Kettle River Lions Club