Busy schedules, time constraints can limit volunteering commitments

The Wilmot and Wellesley Resource Centre has plenty of volunteer opportunities available, including serving lunches. Photo courtesy of Trisha Robinson

By Emily Stewart

Volunteers are the backbone of many organizations, but not everyone is available to commit for the long term or outside of their personal schedule.

The New Hamburg Lions Club is able to recruit plenty of volunteers for their events in New Hamburg and Wellesley Township just for the day of, but finding long-term volunteers who are involved with the planning is more difficult.

"Once the event itself is organized, we can have volunteers who look after things,” said Paul Mackie, head of membership at the Lions Club. “What we're finding is it's difficult to find volunteers who not only want to participate in an event that suits their motivations, but also to come back to the club and help organize other events and take on the responsibilities."

Mackie said that the variety of events available, from a social perspective, and the busy schedules of today’s families make it difficult to recruit longtime members committing to the bi-monthly Lions meetings. He’s been a member for 30 years and said that back in the day, there wasn’t too much to do after returning home from work.

"Nowadays, life has changed, life is very, very different. You've got moms and dads both going to hockey games with the kids three days a week. You've got moms and dads going to soccer practices or you’ve got three kids and two of them are going in this direction, one's going the other direction. That didn't exist years ago,” Mackie said.

Carol Massel, a longtime volunteer since the late ‘60s, loves being able to give back to the community through Lions Club initiatives. She also said there are fewer long-term volunteers doing the planning, organizing and other administrative duties leading up to the events than there are those volunteering the day of the event.

"It always seems that there are a certain core of the organization that do a lot of the volunteering,” she said.

The Wilmot and Wellesley Resource Centre (WWRC) has penty of volunteer opportunities to support events and initiatives like free clothing drives, foodbanks, special events, sitting as a board and/or sub-committee member, and programming. Trisha Robinson, executive director, said that volunteerism at the resource centre has remained the same over time, but that commitment can fluctuate seasonally.

“There are certain periods during the year like our holiday hampers; we have more volunteers applying then than we have spaces for and some of the volunteers are only available after hours and on weekends. Usually, staff don't work on weekends so we can't fill some of those requests,” Robinson said.

Robinson said after the initial interview and screening, the WWRC will try to find a position that best matches each volunteer’s schedule. If a volunteer cannot commit to the times the centre has available, the centre will seek out other opportunities from other organizations that may better fit their schedule. Still, the volunteers keep the WWRC running.

"We couldn't survive without our volunteers, and we can do so much more with volunteers and that's one of my strategies is to bolster the volunteer roster,” she said. “For instance, if we lost funding on one of our departments, we could rely on volunteers so we don't have to shut the program down. Volunteers play an integral part in the programming and the amount of people we can serve."

Mackie said regardless of whether someone is volunteering for a day, a week, a month, or years, those depending on their efforts need to acknowledge them and express gratitude for their help either through a thank-you card or a shout-out in an email.

"Try and recognize them,” he said. “Don't let too much time go by if they were there and they helped out and they showed up on time. This could be young people, old people, students, that type of thing; just a thank you, some kind of recognition goes a long way." 

Anyone interested in becoming involved with the Lions Club can send an email to Mackie at paulmackie@swencolimited.com. To inquire about WWRC volunteer opportunities, send an email to Robinson at info@wilmotwellesleyrc.ca.