According to Stettler Kinsmen Club president Kirk Blake, volunteerism locally and globally has dropped sharply over the last several decades.
Blake says that in its heyday during the 1980s, the service club boasted 45 members; today, the club is a shell of its former self with just nine active members.
However, the club is still getting things done, having completed the town's first accessible playground in 2024 thanks to a partnership with the Kinettes of Canada.
"I consider volunteering and membership to be two different things," said Blake. "We're having a pretty good turnout with our nine members."
As far as volunteering goes, Blake says that people still come out to help with individual projects. For the days of the accessible playground build, they had upwards of 45 people on site.
"We have people that are willing to help when needed," said Blake. "We just don't have people that are willing to 'join a club and become a member' because I don't know if they have a bit of a misconception about what it involves."
Blake notes that volunteering for a service club is "not as much work as anyone thinks."
One misconception that Blake feels may be out there is that by joining a service club, someone loses control of their free time, which is not the case.
According to Blake, members are asked to come to the meetings, but outside of that, they are asked to help out wherever they can, but not to the detriment of everything else in their lives.
Another issue facing the Kinsmen, according to Blake, is the rise of other service groups. He notes that around 40 years ago, the Kinsmen were the group that others came to for service assistance. However, as more of the groups began to offer the services themselves, some of the Kinsmen members began to drift to those other groups.
"Whereas 40 years ago, they would have been a member of a larger club and they would have just pushed for their project to be covered," said Blake. "It's a societal shift ... there's a lack of desire to join and be a member because that comes with the perception that your time is now managed for you ... that's not the case."
Blake notes that the Kinsmen, like all service groups, is a volunteer organization.
One detail with the Kinsmen that Blake noted is that it is non-denominational, welcoming everyone, and it is not a business working group.
Blake says that the volunteerism in Stettler has moved to what he calls "transactional volunteering," where people come out and help out with just one project.
Still, Blake emphasizes that it's not a big commitment to be a member; the club meets the second and fourth Thursday of the month and has done so since 1946, the Stettler Club's inception.
"Our members tend to make that priority," said Blake.
Blake says that one reason for people to join is pride in knowing they have helped in improving the community, pride in being able to say "I built that."
Blake hopes that by letting people know that volunteering is less onerous than they believe people may be interested in joining the club to ensure that it can keep providing service to the community for years to come.
If anyone is interested in checking out the Stettler Kinsmen, contact Blake at 403-742-7882 or by email at stettlerkinsmen@gmail.com.
