They’re the organizations you call when you want manpower, David Thomson says – the groups that donate whatever funds they can muster and hours they can spare. They’re a network that helps make events in Squamish run smoothly and projects come to life. But service clubs’ numbers are diminishing, the Lions Club member and past president says.
“A lot of the work gets done even with the numbers dwindling,” he says during a breakfast meeting with Lions Club president Mike Jenson and former president and long-time member Nelson Winterburn. “Can you imagine what we could do if we had more members?”
The Squamish Lions Club was established 58 years ago. Over the years, the club’s motto “We serve” has rung true. It was one of the driving forces behind the Squamish Days Loggers Sports Festival, an event the club helped found in order to raise money for loggers disabled on the job, Jenson noted. The club purchased and ran Squamish’s first ambulance. Members also built the town’s first swimming pool, golf course and rolled up their sleeves to construct some of Brennan Park Recreation Centre’s sports fields.
“It has sort of a grassroots, community feel to it,” Jenson says of the club. “The things that are successful in town have that community base.”
The Lions raise money for children with disabilities, sending one youth a year to the Squamish Easter Seals Camp. They also hand out two annual bursaries to Howe Sound Secondary School students.
Their work is everywhere, from the picnic tables families enjoy in parks to the gazebo at the seniors’ citizen home, The Manor, Winterburn says. They’re the muscle at pancake breakfasts and handymen and women fixing up access ramps around town.
“I think service clubs have always been a big part of Squamish,” Winterburn says.
Today, the Squamish Lions have 25 members. Three of them are new recruits, but the Lions want more names on their membership list, Thomson says. The volunteer spirit is alive in Squamish – just take look at the Test of Metal mountain bike race or the soccer leagues – yet it’s not filtering through to the service clubs, Thomson notes.
The shrinking volunteer pool could be due to the misperception that the organizations are old men’s clubs, he says, noting two of the three new recruits are women. Another misunderstanding is that being a member takes up a lot of time, but Thomson says the Lions meet only twice a month for a couple of hours over dinner. Then again, it could just be a lack of awareness to what the club actually does, he concludes.
“When you need volunteers, who do you call? We are the people you call. You make one call rather than 500 calls,” he says, noting Pemberton Search and Rescue reached out to the Lions during the rash of summer fires in the hopes that members could help set up a shelter in Squamish if one was required.
It’s not just the Squamish Lions Club that is struggling to keep its numbers up. For years there has been a decline in membership of service clubs across Canada, BC Elks Association president Dave Sallenback told The Squamish Chief in an email.
“I believe the main reason is the changes in society. Most families need to have both parents working to make a decent living, and when they do have extra time, it is spent relaxing together,” he wrote. “Families are also waiting later in life to start their families.”
The Squamish Rotary Club has been able to buck the trend. Over the past decade, membership has remained consistent at approximately 60 participants, the club’s immediate past-president Brian Finley says. It’s the largest service club in town, and about two-thirds of the membership are men and one-third women.
Worldwide, Rotary has 1.2 million members in 35,000 clubs in more than 200 countries. One of the draws to the Rotary Club is spelled out in its motto – “be a gift to the world,” Finley noted.
“We are committed to making a difference in our community; building goodwill, peace and doing good at home and across the globe,” he said.
Since opening Squamish’s branch in 1966, the Rotary has funded and served more than 6,000 meals at local elementary schools. The club helps organize the Community Cares Christmas hampers and helps residents with medical expenses through its Linda Carney Rotary Cares Fund. The list goes on and on, from supporting mental illness health initiatives to sending a Squamish youth to the Rotary Youth Leadership program.
The three Lions Club members agree the organizations play a fulfilling role in the lives of the members. Whether it be through the Elks, Rotary, Masons or Lions, service clubs are a great way to get involved with your town while also enjoying a feeling of comradery, they say.
“I always believe that to be a good citizen, you have to give back to the community,” Thomson said.
