Supporting Children’s Activities and Events

YMCA’s, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4H, FFA and Other Youth Organizations

My visit to Sussex Family YMCA in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware was extremely fulfilling and inspiring! It is so encouraging to visit an organization that supports wholesome atmospheres for children and families. It was fun to hear that those wonderful supporters of their YMCA not only met their goal for fundraising but they exceeded it by a good margin! This means that the staff will again be able to expand services to include more families!

It was so wonderful to see the recognition of their donors. Man, when the contributions of those wonderful people were announced there was not a dry eye in the house! I so admire people who contribute so selflessly to make their communities strong. My hat is off to all of them.

The Age of Most Donors Was Shocking

One thing hit me as I was watching the event unfold last Thursday evening and it kind of scared me because I have seen this same phenomenon in so many communities across America…

Most of the Donors Were Older Than Me!

So why is that a scary picture? Because I am now sixty years old… and if most of the donors are older than me, a serious question arises. “Who will support these organizations when our generation is gone?” Now don’t get me wrong, I do not view us as having one foot in the grave because most of us are still in the prime of our productive lives; but in ten to fifteen years most of us will be past the peak of our earning years and will no longer be able to contribute funds to support these agencies and activities.

We Must Recruit Our Replacements!

When we hold fundraising events we must invite younger generations! We do not need to have them attending just to give money because many have yet to have earned enough to afford large donations of funds. However, we need to be pay attention to the task of educating the younger generations about the fact that these wonderful family activities need their support and volunteer efforts.

America has been founded upon volunteer effort in our communities. My experience is telling me that we are not doing a very good job of educating the younger generations about this fact. Far too many of the next generation seem to be looking for Government to support all of the agencies that we hold dear. When that happens we will be in dire straits! It is not the responsibility of Government to support these organizations.
Every time that you attend a fund raiser, be sure to include one young person with you and teach those younger than you what it means to support the organizations that make your community strong!