Oakville's clubs and service organizations are finding new ways of continuing with their core activities, despite over six months of pandemic restrictions curtailing ordinary fundraising capabilities.
Like many other volunteer groups, the Optimist Club moved immediately to an online format for their meetings when the pandemic began. The service organization dedicated to kids and youth was able to adapt their normal art contest, bursary award, essay contest, and oratorical contest moving all these events online. With so many people stuck at home, the art contest even received an uptick in participation compared to previous years, according to Vicki Mains, Immediate Past President of the Optimist Club of Oakville.
The youth wing, called the Junior Optimist Club, saw so much growth Mains says she had to cap member numbers at 80, a big increase from the normal participation rate of about 50 students. As more students wanted to be involved, the youth executive chose to increase the frequency of their online meetings from twice a month to every week.
While the program-side was as busy as ever, fundraising has been a challenge.
“A lot of people are out of work so there isn’t the same disposable income that people can contribute,” says Mains. "And of course large events like their annual Shrimp Fest Gala, which typically raises a third of their annual budget, had to be cancelled. “There was no way to be able to do it, so that has been a huge dent. Since March, there has been no fundraising.”
Fortunately, some funding is still coming into the Optimist Club and other service clubs and charities thanks to proceeds from the local Delta Bingo and Gaming proceeds.
The electronic bingo funds are the only revenue coming into the Lion’s Club of Oakville according to Treasurer Al Teliatnik. While this year’s commitments to local food banks, women’s shelters and SafetyNet charity were all paid out, he says it’s anyone’s guess how next year will go. In an ordinary year, the 42 members of Oakville’s largest Lion’s Club would have expected to raise $40,000 to $50,000 in summer fundraisers, including a golf tournament and a weekly vintage car show and shine -- events that were all cancelled.
“We’re trying to work out an online auction and a few other online ideas for raising funds,” Teliatnik says. “Right now we’re playing it one bit at a time.”
It’s a similar story over at the Rotary Clubs, which had to cancel their largest fundraiser, the Oakville Family RibFest, an event that usually raises $30,000 to $40,000 depending on the weather, according to President Cathy Whittaker of the Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar. The organization briefly considered attempting a drive-through RibFest like their sister organization in Burlington, but “a lot of our members are older and they didn’t feel comfortable participating in certain activities,” Whittaker explains.
The group did have success in their ongoing bottle drive, a new initiative hatched in the early days of the pandemic. It took a lot of effort to get off the ground but has so far pulled in $10,000. In addition, all several area Rotary Clubs banded together to collaborate on this year’s Rotary Online Auction running November 7 to 21. “I’m hopeful we’ll still see a good response but again, you never know. As much as we want to help the community and internationally, we also know that people may not be able to support us as much as they have in the past.”
The year 2020 has not been kind to the Kinsmen Club of Oakville, a men’s service organization with eight active members, who usually raise around $15,000 for charities annually. The group was able to move meetings online, but for fundraising, “we’re decimated,” says Kinsmen volunteer Art Walford. “All of our fundraising in the past was meeting people. And that couldn’t happen.”
To make matters worse, the small groups lost one of their oldest, longest serving members this year, former town councillor Ralph Robinson in July. With their winter fundraiser, the Santa Claus Parade, cancelled, Walford says the group is experimenting with an online raffle.
While financial worries abound, keeping in touch is something the 60th Degree Society has managed to salvage despite being a club for retired men primarily organized around social gatherings. Although they have had to pare down their normally busy events calendar of bus tours, potlatches, games days and special events, the 60 active members have been able to maintain contact with one another by other means.
Communications volunteer Al Oatridge says he has been sending out a daily email compilations of fun facts and tidbits that he finds on the Internet or are contributed by other members. And two to three times a week, the group meets at a park with one member wielding a stick exactly two metres long to ensure lawn chairs are properly spaced.
“We’re very cautious about that and not going over the numbers. But it’s how you keep social.”
Voicing a concern that unites all local clubs and service organizations through Covid, Oatridge says, “Everyone needs community. I’m hoping this keeps us together, so a year from now, or whenever this terrible thing is over, we can start up again.”
Back at the Rotary Club, Cathy Whittaker encourages everyone to join a club or reach out to volunteer for local projects that are still ongoing. “What I find interesting is Covid has made us look at different opportunities and we’ve had to change our whole mindset on what that means.”
