When it comes to volunteers, I’m pretty sure no place in Canada can match us. That message came home to me in a big way on Tuesday, Aug. 12, when the annual Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts volunteer appreciation barbecue was in full swing.
There is, however, a worrisome aside to this plethora of riches. When I added up the names of the unpaid workers, the total came to about 150. And a quick look into the faces of the people the Festival board relies on so heavily each year pointed to another high number — the average age of the volunteers.
This year the Festival marks its 32nd consecutive year in existence. It wouldn’t be a stretch to think that many of our staunchest supporters could have been middle-aged when the Festival held its inaugural event. Some of them have been with us through thick and thin and couldn’t begin to imagine a summer without working their tails off in mid-August. And frankly, neither could we picture the Festival without them.
But the reality is that day may be coming soon. The terrain of the Festival site represents a not-so-interesting challenge to some of our folks who are dealing with mobility concerns. And the multitude of steps inside our gorgeous pavilion make even the most fleet of foot tired at the end of the day.
So what’s going to happen to this literary showpiece in the next few years? Are younger people going to step up to keep the Festival alive?
I like to think that the outreach work Jane Davidson, the Festival’s producer, has been doing with the Celebration of Authors, Books and Community (CABC) — an alliance between the schools, local libraries and the Festival — will produce some positive results.
During the year Jane brings in stellar authors to visit the schools. This year every school on the Coast had at least one visiting author, and some had several. There’s a real hunger out there for the written word, and that is something I refuse to think could ever change. So in a few years when our volunteer force changes face, will it be fresh-faced university graduates taking their place or their grateful parents showing their appreciation to the organization that helped bring books to life for their offspring? In a perfect world, it would be both.
Older adults of today grew up in a very different world. There was a greater emphasis on contributing to the world around them. With today’s virtual neighbourhoods of Facebook and Linkedin, we’re perhaps sending the message that spending time together for the common good is no longer important.
Many times I hear that younger people are too busy to contribute much to their community. But by the same token, I see their peers out and about doing what they can to make the world a better place, which gives me hope for the future.
I believe as long as there’s an author to write, a publisher to bring the writing forward and a reader to savour the final product, there will always be a Festival.
Whose faces will be seen on the volunteers of Festival 50? The only thing I know for sure is they won’t be the same ones I saw this year.
