The vanished service club

Much ink has been spilled about the decline of service organizations right across Canada, but we must add some more here in honour of the Penticton Gyro Club.

As reported Tuesday, the club has disbanded after making a final $800 donation to the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation.

The 13 members who voted to call it quits ranged in age from 80 to 91. We’re all for people staying active in old age, but they definitely deserve a rest. Too bad there’s no one to take their place. Or is there? In its most recent study of the issue conducted in 2013, Statistics Canada found about 44 per cent of Canadians considered themselves regular volunteers, a rate unchanged over the decade before that.

And the study also found that those between the ages of 15 and 19 were the most avid volunteers, with 66 per cent of people in that age bracket reporting they regularly offered their time to help others.

It just appears they’re finding different ways to give their time and money other than joining the Gyro Club, the Elks, the Eagles, the Royal Canadian Legion or any other service club.

Times have changed, and instead of supporting charity by visiting a hotdog stand at a fair or having a beer at the clubhouse, people now seem quite content to donate in other ways.

Exhibit A: As of Monday, the fundraiser for the Humboldt Broncos had raised $12 million from 131,000 people and organizations in just 10 days. That’s a lot of giving.

Exhibit B: Don’t forget, too, the annual 10,000 Tonight event when kids from both Penticton high schools go door to door collecting donations for the local food bank.

So let us not mourn the loss of service clubs as another blow to our society. Let us instead celebrate and continue the work they did by giving to our community in whichever capacity suits us best.

But next time you’re at Gyro Park enjoying a concert at the band shell on a glorious summer day, don’t forget how it got its name .

Thanks, Gyros.