Okanagan Scouts group permanently disbands due to vaccine policy

The 1st Lake Country Scouts group has permanently disbanded and the COVID-19 vaccine mandates appear to have been the last straw.

Bob Harding, commissioner for the scouting group, said they had already been struggling to recruit enough volunteers, then the pandemic hit.

The mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy, “decimated our leadership team,” Harding said. Those numbers have not returned. As of Sept. 1, Scouts Canada no longer has a vaccine mandate.

“There must be two registered leaders at every meeting and parents weren’t willing to step up.”

Before the pandemic, they had 24 young people registered for programs.

READ MORE: Okanagan pet food bank struggling to keep up with demand in pandemic

“It was just really frustrating,” Harding said.

The next two closest scouting programs are in Kelowna, one in Glenmore and the other in Rutland.

Glenmore’s Scouts, the 1st Glenvalley, have been successful in maintaining and growing their group, in part because it has a larger population to draw from, he said.

The Lake Country group has been struggling for some time. The group was stronger in the 1990s and 2000s but now Harding said there’s more competition among child and youth programs. Some of the youth have transferred over to the different Scouts program but some haven't.

The Scouts aren’t the only non-profit that’s finding it difficult to get enough volunteers. According to Imagine Canada, a group created to bolster Canada’s non-profit sector, the biggest challenge for non-profits this year has been finding and retaining staff and volunteers. 

Over the years, other non-profits in the region have also cited a lack of volunteerism. In Penticton, a food program to feed hungry children was in peril due to a lack of volunteers.

— This story was updated at 10:54 a.m., Oct. 3, 2022, to clarify that the Scouts Canada vaccine mandate ended Sept. 1, 2022.

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