The announcement this week that Santa’s Sparkle will no longer be held owing to volunteer numbers dwindling is disheartening news.
While completely understandable, particularly for those who have devoted their time, money and efforts into running it, its demise is yet another regular and well-loved event Arran has lost.
It will now join week-long village fun weeks which were once a holiday staple for generations of Arran visitors but which are no more. And much like the Corrie Capers festival, it will be fondly remembered by many but accepted as an aspect of how island life used to be.
Sadly, the lack of young fresh volunteers with lively ideas and matching enthusiasm, seems to be a recurring theme with many organisations, event organisers and committees on Arran.
Whether one can attribute it to a newer generation with less sense of communal duty and service, or whether it is a generation with different goals and ambitions, or even just that people have less time on their hands, is difficult to discern.
It is one of life’s inevitabilities that fashions, tastes and just about everything will change, but much like the closure of churches owing to dwindling congregations, it is sad to witness.