The community that disappeared

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

By Jake Nichols

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-The economy sputters, and Jackson Hole flourishes apparently unaware. A housing crisis leaves empty homes across America, while Jackson Hole calls ‘affordable housing’ a problem. The unemployment rate rises, but in Jackson Hole, $20-an-hour jobs fall off trees.

Is idyllic Jackson immune to every national trend? Maybe not.
When Jackson Hole Kiwanis scrapped their annual Follies last fall, it sent a clear memorandum to the community: We just don’t have time to volunteer.
The local trend counters a recent report by the Corporation for National and Community Service which ranked Wyoming volunteerism 12th in the nation.
“Sheriff Bob Zimmer was one of the first to call and ask ‘why?’” Kiwanis member Mark Hassler said about dwindling participation. “Last year we were trying to regroup. People were burned out.”

Some in Jackson said burn out was inevitable. A group that once boasted 40 members in the early ’90s now has a handful it can count on for an undertaking as time-consuming as the Follies. Club president Jim Kaye blames dwindling membership on a cultural or population shift. Late Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers have learned a different lifestyle. Television, Internet and virtual reality games have taught a generation to get by with very little help from our friends.

“We are down on membership, drastically,” said second year Jaycees member Betsy Davis. “Numbers have been dropping for years now. We have five board members, and we are the only ones that are active.” The Jackson Hole Jaycees had 125 members on the roster in 1997. Now, they’re lucky to get 20 or so for one of their events.
The Jaycees fund the Fourth of July fireworks show every year with proceeds from the Christmas tree sale on the lawn of the Virginian. Chapter president Bob Hammond said his organization turned to the corporate world for the first time in order to purchase enough pyrotechnics for Fire in the Hole.

“We add a little more money every year,” Hammond said of the fireworks fund, which totaled about $30,000 this summer. “I think a lot of people don’t mind donating money, but time, it’s a lot harder to do that.”

The Jaycees pancake breakfast on the Square is another undertaking where no substitute exists for boots on the ground. “We need 25 to 30 people to run the breakfast,” Hammond said. “We get some help from the Lions Club and we help them at their fair breakfast. We beg, borrow and steal members from other places.”

It’s slim pickings at the Lions Club as well. Membership at the Jackson chapter is so low – around 30 fulltime Lions – that two vice president seats have gone unfilled for years.
Is it a collapse in civic engagement as Robert Putnam suggests in his book Bowling Alone? According to Putnam, America’s declining social capital can be blamed on demographic shifts and a general apathy toward group-oriented behavior. Americans don’t participate anymore. A card game with the neighbors, church attendance and bowling leagues are places where evidence of a society-wide shift to nonparticipation can be observed.

But maybe there’s some hope.
At the Elk’s Lodge, the last place one might expect to find a 20-something schmoozing at the crusty basement bowling alley, bingo is the biggest game in town.
Lodge secretary Chuck Samples credits a youth movement. “We were in decline for 15 or 16 years there, but lately, it’s the younger kids that come in and want to do something. We are getting a lot of younger members.” Samples admitted that owning the town’s only bowling lanes are part of the attraction, but he said, “If the alleys closed today, we lose maybe 25 to 30 members.” Not bad out of a total of 450.

Perhaps the i-Generation holds the key to the future of volunteerism. The recent Order of the Arrow Eagle Scout trail building project shone the spotlight on a segment of the population that is influencing their peers, elders and those to come.

Outgoing Jackson District Boy Scouts Chairman Paul Vogelheim says he is leaving the organization in a better state than when he started. “It’s a pretty healthy group of Scouting,” he said.

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The community that disappeared | Planet JH News Article: General News

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