Come forth, sloths, and unite!
– Time For A Tiara: Column by Ginna Young –
It’s getting harder and harder to find anyone who will help out with events, leaving the same core group of two to four individuals to shoulder everything and “git ’er done.” As part of multiple non-profit groups, I see the struggle first-hand.
Often, I’m the youngest one volunteering and as I think ahead on years to come, I’m worried that we won’t have any participation once people age out. As much as I hate to think about it, the people I know and care about who are older than I am, won’t be around forever.
No, really, think about it. Let’s use the Lions as an example (insert your preferred club chapter here). You know that scrumptious charcoal chicken dinner you simply can’t wait to get your hands on in early spring? Yeah, who is going to cook and serve that, if there are no club members to keep it going?
Even when you’re younger, if it’s only two or three people planning for, setting up for and running an entire fundraising event, or community gathering, it takes a huge toll. Most of us have one, if not two, full-time jobs, and families or parents who need our care. That’s not taking into account making sure bills are paid, groceries are bought, the house is cleaned, laundry is done, the yard is mowed, etc.
Forget gift giving or “luxury” things like sending a birthday card. We plain old don’t have time, let alone any time for ourselves, such as reading, going to a movie or getting a pedicure. We’re lucky we even get any sleep.
So, even just one event can exhaust us beyond belief and I, along with my core group, probably host five to six events yearly, not counting the times I help out with other things and with other organizations. It’s a lot, yet no one steps up to lift the burden, although we do ask and invite anyone to join us.
It’s not just the volunteers who are in short supply lately, as the participants are missing in action. Why, we even had to cancel a FREE scarecrow building contest this fall, because people were not even interested in doing it. If they had a raggedy old shirt and a holey pair of pants, they had everything they needed to build their scarecrow; we provided the rest.
Yet, I had only two people sign up, not nearly enough to hold the event. Is it worth it to try again next year? That remains to be seen.
There’s a disturbing pattern occurring, where people are not showing up for things like they should. If it’s not a take-and-go type of thing, no one wants to do it. I, myself, like drive-thru and curbside service, but when it comes to community events, except for a dinner, that just ain’t gonna fly.
We NEED bodies at the events, playing games, looking at raffle prizes, dancing, laughing, visiting and making our efforts all worth the while. If we can’t get enough participants in community and fundraising events to make it worthwhile, we’ll lose sponsor support, what few volunteers we have and the drive to even put an event on.
I’m very disheartened at how this whole year has gone for many of the events. If we don’t get more people to help and attend, there won’t be any events going forward.
Remember the lockdown part of COVID, when we couldn’t go anywhere and even when we could, there wasn’t anywhere to go? It was boring, wasn’t it and frustrating that nothing was happening?
That’s how we who volunteer feel now. So, if you don’t want to see things go away again – and this time, it would be for good – then you better get out there and volunteer. You better get out there and attend those events. Get off your couch, throw on a coat over your pajamas and let’s keep our communities going.
Sloths, unite!
