Do we need a strong Kinsmen Club, Rotary Club, etc.?

I wonder how different the city would look if groups like the Kinsmen Club and Rotary Club were as big as they once were? In dozens of communities across the province they improved the quality of life and provided services that local governments could not afford or would take years to get around to doing.

Throughout the post war development of Winnipeg and its suburbs, governments were concerned about expanding basic services like roads and policing and many other things got ignored. Numerous parks, playgrounds, recreation facilities, new furniture for hospital wards, etc. that would have had to wait in line were provided in short order thanks to these groups.

The same can be said for the city of Selkirk. From the 1940s through 1950s these community service organizations, sometimes working together, established numerous park and playgrounds, furnished the community's new arena and funded the construction of the new community hall.

Today, if citizens see a need we contact politicians and appeal through social media or traditional media, but in the end have to wait out the years or decades for the improvements we want to come about. That seems a shame.

There are groups that exist today meant to push projects along, but they are often site specific, (“Friends of the x”), or based around a single issue. They do a good job but it can take years to establish such a group, obtain charitable status, get media attention for their cause and collect enough in small donations to be a big enough player to prod governments to improve a site or address the issue at hand any faster than it wants to.

In their heyday groups like Rotary and Kisnmen were well established with lots of resources in terms fundraising power and bodies to call on for work bees. Also, they were able bring instant media attention to a project and had contacts in politics, business and the community to get stuff done quickly.

It seems that dividing ourselves into smaller groups dedicated to narrow issues has been a step backwards for community projects. Could it be time for a resurgence of community service groups like Kinsmen and Rotary clubs?