Volunteer shortage puts future of longtime Ilderton club in jeopardy

After 35 years of serving the community, the Optimist Club of Ilderton says it may have to wind down operations for good next year if it can't recruit more adult volunteers to help staff its local events.

The club broke the news to the community on Sunday in a social media post, saying that membership had declined significantly in recent years, in particular during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At their most recent meeting, club officials decided to continue for another year, but would "have no choice but to close the club," if it couldn't grow its membership in that time, the post said.

Julie Lewis, the club's president, said the decision was not an easy one to make, and the hope is that the appeal spurs more people to come forward who maybe wouldn't have otherwise.

"It came down to the fact that some folks are needing to move away, (and) some are looking to get into their retirement and travel more, so they don't have the ability to be around and support the volunteer events," Lewis told CBC London on Tuesday.

"We have such a wonderful community that we want to support the events that we've typically done, we just wouldn't be able to do with, you know, five adults or less."

Those events include a free annual Easter egg hunt, bike safety rodeo, contests, and a family skate party on New Year's, among others, Lewis says.

The club used to organize an annual "Santa's Breakfast" at Christmastime, and a three-on-three hockey tournament in the summer, but shrinking membership put an end to both.

"Whenever we do host large events, the high school kids ... we've always had an abundance of those youth volunteers, but that limits us from being able to run more fundraising events where we have limitations on the age of volunteers that can help out," she said.

Founded in 1991, the club also fundraises for local youth athletic leagues, and helped develop Ilderton's Deerhaven Optimist Park, which features a playground, basketball, pickleball and tennis courts, and two soccer fields.

It's also responsible for lining the community's streets with Canadian flags for Canada Day, a tradition which took on added import this year against the backdrop of U.S. annexation and tariff threats.

Like the Optimist Club of Ilderton, a critical shortage of volunteers is putting the futures of countless community organizations across Canada into doubt, said Megan Conway, president and CEO of Volunteer Canada.

Between 2018 and 2023, the percentage of Canadians volunteering for charitable or non-profit organizations plummeted from 41 per cent to 32 per cent, according to Statistics Canada data published last month.

Conway says the COVID-19 pandemic helped accelerate the downward shift in volunteering rates, something seen most notably among women and those aged 25 to 34, the StatsCan data shows. Older adults who have volunteered long-term in retirement aren't being replaced as they age out.

"There has not been the level of renewal in younger people to participate in the same kinds of ways, or they're facing barriers to participation because of economic challenges or the cost of living, or their own challenges around child care," she said.

Conway says Volunteer Canada is creating a national volunteer action strategy to modernize volunteering and make it easier for people to participate. (One example she says is simplifying the screening process when it comes to criminal record checks.)

For Lewis, she worries the club's closure would bring a loss of community camaraderie and connection at a time when more people are choosing to stay cooped up at home.

For those who are interested in signing up, she says they can reach out via email.

"We don't need everybody who's thinking about volunteering to be an active part of the board and meet once a month … Sometimes membership is simply being on our roster of folks we can contact to say, 'Hey, we're running this event. Do you want to help run it?'"