Image Credit: CFJC Today/ Adel Ahmed

By Adel Ahmed

KIWANIS CLUB

Kamloops Kiwanis Club shutting down after 70 years of service

Sep 7, 2023 | 5:20 PM

KAMLOOPS — The Kiwanis Club of Kamloops has been part of the community for more than six decades.

But on September 30, the club is closing for good. The reason behind the shutdown is due to the club not having enough volunteers — especially ones who are committed.

“I’ve been involved for 35 years doing an awful lot of the business work of the club,” Roger Parkes from the club told CFJC Today. “I’ve just had enough and the other older members have had enough.”

“We had 12 members but only four or five of us were active.”

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The Kiwanis Club isn’t the only organization in the city that’s impacted by a lack of volunteers. Anita Jacobsen from Volunteer Kamloops says 80 per cent of the organizations her organization supports are also struggling to find volunteers.

“Basically post-COVID once everybody’s been allowed back to work and they’re back doing their extra-curricular activities and taking their kids to activities, I found that talking to our more than 60-plus organizations that we support, they’re all finding the same thing,” said Jacobsen. “People haven’t quite found how to fit volunteering time again.”

Jacobsen says, however, volunteering has evolved over the last several years as opportunities are available for anyone within their schedule.

“There’s the traditional (model) where you are going in at the same set time each week for the same set time. But we also have a lot of virtual opportunities. There’s a lot of virtual support for organizations that can be done on your time schedule.”

Going forward, Parkes says he will be joining the Penticton Kiwanis Club in order to stay as an advisor in Kamloops and to keep the Key Club at Norkam Secondary School going, a club that began a few years ago.

“I believe in it and so I wanted to keep it going,” said Parkes. “That’s why I made this particular move to keep the Key Club going.”