Physical volunteering declined as older volunteers cannot replace it

Evidence

On the other hand, physically demanding forms of volunteering have entered hard times in recent years, probably because they could not cushion the fall in younger volunteers by drawing on the boom in older volunteers. For example, although more than 40 percent of the U.S. population is protected by allor mostly volunteer fire departments, the nationwide ratio of volunteers to professional firefighters fell by a quarter between 1983 and 1997, as fewer younger volunteers signed up to replace their elders and communities were forced to hire professionals. Similarly, nationwide blood donations per one thousand adults declined steadily from eighty units in 1987 to sixty-two units in 1997, even though fear of contracting AIDS through blood donation, a major inhibitor of blood donation in the 1980s, fell substantially over these same years. One cause of declining blood donations appears to be the failure of younger generations to replace the aging long civic generation. In short, volunteering that can be done by senior citizens, such as youth mentoring, is up. Volunteering that requires a younger constitution, such as fighting fires or giving blood, is down. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 427

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Declining civic volunteering was not offset by volunteers shifting to other organizations. — Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: America’s Declining…, 35; Rising volunteering was an Indian summer, not a renewal — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 430