A month after the Carthage, Mo., club closed its doors, not long after celebrating its centennial, it is not clear how the facility and grounds will be used. Members of the community cite a generational shift in the priorities of families as a factor in the facility’s closure.
Nearly a month after the Broadview Country Club in Carthage, Mo., closed its doors, plans for the operation remain unclear, the Joplin (Mo.) Globe reported.
This Christmas will be the first in decades without a party at Broadview, putting an end to Mark Elliff’s three-generation streak at the annual event, the Globe reported.
“I went as a kid, I took my kids, and I took my grandkids,” Elliff said. “Santa was always there, and you took a bunch of pictures, and you knew it was the country club because of the background. But times and generations change.”
Elliff, the president of the Carthage Chamber of Commerce, was a member at Broadview intermittently for 40 years. He said membership at the club had been down for years before its closure—the result, he thinks, of a generational shift in the priorities of Carthage families, the Globe reported.
The Carthage Community Foundation is tracking the same trend on a broader scale, according to Danny Lambeth, a member of the foundation board. He expressed concern that longtime community initiatives and institutions will have trouble staying afloat as a new generation with different spending habits comes into the majority, the Globe reported.
“$1.9 billion will be transferred between the generations in Jasper County in the next 10 years,” said Lambeth. “What we’re seeing is that the kids and the grandkids are no longer staying in the area. Will the people who get that money continue to support the same programs?”
A new fundraising effort by the foundation will attempt to keep some of that money in the region by asking elderly Carthage residents to commit 5% of their estates to local projects. While Broadview was not a charitable organization, it may have fallen victim to a similar trend. Elliff said that parents today are now more involved in their children’s day-to-day activities and place less value on the sit-down dinners that were the hallmark of the club, the Globe reported.
The facility has been purchased by Miriam Putnam, Wayne Putnam, Greg Freeman and Shirley Freeman. They have not yet confirmed their plans for the building and grounds, the Globe reported.
Jerry Poston, president of the Carthage Rotary Club, joined Elliff in lamenting the loss of Broadview, which was the site of an annual Rotary dinner, the Globe reported.
“It hurts when we lose a place like that,” Poston said. “A lot of the organizations that have banquets are having to seek out other venues.”
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