Editor,
Your stories on the problems facing a Kiwanis Club and the CHS Alumni Association were thought-provoking. Sadly, the Kiwanians are disbanding, and the alumni group, while not disbanding, does have its problems as your story noted. In both cases the situations are part of a more widespread problem.
Too many of our people are ignoring community organizations, preferring instead to pursue personal pleasure: watching hour upon hour of TV or computer, or perhaps playing golf, dining out morning, noon and night or pursuing other diversions. But volunteering with organizations that support the community is not on the radar screen.
If we don’t reverse this trend, there will be other good groups that will have similar fates. In fact, I think it’s easy to see that many of our service, charitable and faith-based groups are not attracting enough new members and workers to fill the ranks as time goes on.
It might not be too late to save the CHS Alumni Association, but it was disheartening to hear the high school vice principal’s comment about the school not being “affiliated” with the association. The schools should be affiliated with their alumni.
Many high schools and most colleges nurture their alumni groups for the benefit of the school. In Carmel’s case we are talking about alumni who appreciate their former school, have been paying their taxes to support it for years and merely want to maintain an “affiliation.”
Seems like that would be a good idea for the schools to latch onto.
Fred Swift, 46032