There is something to be said for rural life, especially when it comes to the ball tournaments, fall suppers, poker rallies, summer fairs, and car bingos that go on throughout the year.
It takes special people to put them on because none of these things are easy to put together and take many hours of work.
However, while all these things still take place, I remember a day when there were constantly things going on, even in the smallest of towns.
In my work, I have been to many of these community events over the years and spoken to many organizers who stepped up to the plate to make sure their event was a homerun.
However, lack of volunteers play a major role in the narrative.
Everyone, if not the majority of event organizers, have hinted or came right out and said that their number of volunteers do not match the number of hours needed to put on an event.
I heard many times that people do not think one person can make a difference but an hour or two volunteering for a local group can go a long way.
This decline in volunteering is something people should be taking note of for many reasons.
For one thing, many of these events are raising money for the community in some respect.
Whether it is for the community as a whole, a certain project within the community, or a certain group who is just trying to survive in what is a difficult time for small communities, these fundraising dollars come back to everyone in the community in some way.
Kids groups in small towns get a lot out of volunteer fundraisers and I know, as someone who grew up on the kindness of volunteers, that many of the programs, sports teams, and community events would not have gone on without them.
That made an impact on me and seeing that as a kid is a big reason why I volunteer now.
Growing up in the area, I have also often heard the phrase that nothing happens in small communities. Now that I live and work in a small community, I see everything that goes on on the weekend and there are few weekends during the year where there is absolutely nothing to do.
The majority of these events run on volunteer power and time but if we do not have volunteers to pick up the slack, we will lose these events and truly have nothing to do on small town weekends.
What will small communities look like 10 to 20 years from now if we do not have fresh volunteers willing to put the effort in?
Whether it is a lack of time or a mentality that our time is not worth much, we need to rethink volunteering and how much of an impact it does have.
