When I was a teenager living in the Municipality of Pontiac and attending school in Aylmer, I was always ashamed to tell the city kids where I bussed in from every day; it was typical to be made fun of for living and growing up in the country.
When I was a teenager living in the Municipality of Pontiac and attending school in Aylmer, I was always ashamed to tell the city kids where I bussed in from every day; it was typical to be made fun of for living and growing up in the country. Now that I’m 30, I’m proud of the town I live in and the benefits that come with living in the country.
More and more we are seeing our municipality come to life with young adults moving to the rural area to raise their families because of the open space, clean air, peaceful atmosphere, and reasonable commute for those who work within city limits. With this growth, we’re seeing an increase in participation in community events and sports and a greater need for child care.
Spaces in government subsidized daycare facilities are becoming few and far between and are a treasure when you get the call that a space is available. But what happens when your child is too old to attend daycare and school is out for the summer?
We’ve seen volunteer organizations such as Groupe Action Jeunesse step up to the plate to organize summer-long day camps at a reasonable rate to working parents who are unable to take the time off.
With the growth in families, we’ve seen a growth in the need for resources such as day camps for school aged children. While volunteer organizations do a fabulous job, we need to be reminded that the volunteers generating services for our families are doing so at the expense of time with their own families.
The growth in demand for day camps, sports and recreational activities, and community events puts more demand on these volunteers. How much are we expecting these generous people to sacrifice?
Perhaps we need to look at options that support our community volunteers. Maybe it’s time the Municipality of Pontiac considers creating a position that would assist in the management of these resources to alleviate some of the demand on our volunteers. They’re dedicating long hours to our municipality’s families and putting on several events to foster active youth in the community, but i’m afraid we’re beginning to near the straw that will break the camel’s back. Our volunteers need support if we want to continue to have such great and reasonably priced resources available to us.
Anonymous
MUNICIPALITY OF PONTIAC
