By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
The 2nd Annual Osoyoos Volunteer Fair is set to run on Apr. 25 at the Osoyoos and District Museum and Archives. The event aims to connect community members with nearly two dozen local non-profit organizations where they can learn about local volunteer opportunities. And of course, there will be BBQ’d hot dogs.
The event is building on last year’s inaugural event, which helped boost volunteer ranks in some of the organizations that participated, according to Birgit Arnstein, a co-organizer of the event and also President of the Osoyoos Lake Water Quality Society (OLWQS).
Arnstein is working with Kara Burton, Curator and Executive Director of the Osoyoos and District Museum and Archives, on the event, timed to coincide with National Volunteer Week, which runs from Apr. 19-25.
“The volunteer fair will let people in the community know about the various volunteer opportunities in the community and that there are so many groups,” Arnstein said. This year will feature around 19 groups – at last count – with all non-profits on the Town of Osoyoos list being invited. Groups will share tables this year, which enables more groups to join.
And while the event will once again be held on a Saturday, the hours will be extended from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. to span the lunch crowd. Hot dogs and drinks are being sponsored by Emergency Support Services (ESS), which is also seeking volunteers.
With volunteers in many organizations “ageing out” and many involved in more than one non-profit, the impact is significant. And for whatever reason, volunteering appears to be dropping off in the tail end of the “boomer” segment and further along through the Gen X and subsequent generations.
Arnstein is at a loss as to why it’s becoming so difficult to attract new volunteers. Those with kids are completely understandable, she notes, as they are typically very busy with school and after-school sporting activities, for instance.
“It isn’t quite the same perspective,” she says. “There are people that come to town who are just seeking to relax and play golf and play pickleball and get on their boats, and aren’t thinking of giving back. And the giving back, I think, is something that happened in the older generations.”
“It’s a concern, yeah, and it’s a concern, not only in this town, but nationwide,” she adds. Without a course correction, it could spell trouble for so many of the local volunteer organizations that Osoyoos runs on.
“The answers aren’t easy,” she says, adding that the volunteer fair enables the groups to help people get to know about some of the important work that the groups do. Arnstein cites her own water quality society as an example. “We are testing the lake. Our data is important, and we are also trying to protect the lake through public education, events and so on.”
And then there are also fun organizations, she says, giving the example of the Festival Society, which “brings a lot of fun to the community. All of these things create a well-rounded community, but we need the people to do it.”
Ironically, Arnstein is about to become “part of the problem”, as she too is stepping back after many years volunteering at the water quality society, creating a hole at the top of the organization.
With aging seniors at one end and younger families with children at the other, the ideal target group would be those who come to Osoyoos for early retirement, spanning the 50s age group. “Those are the kind of people that would be nice to attract,” she says.
