MACARTHUR & District Lions Club will be winding up after more than 50 years with the Market Street building freehold and a number of items up for sale.

President and club administrator, Christine Duyvestyn said that the club was in the throes of closing.

“We’re having a final wind up on June 17 that will be in the Mechanics Institute Hall in High Street, Macarthur 12.30 - 4pm.”

“We’ve sold our building - the old State bank building is currently under offer - once the sale of the building goes through, we’ll then look at offering some items to other Lions Clubs or selling them.”

She said it was a difficult decision for the Lions to close.

“It’s very sad,” Mrs Duyvestyn said.

“Unfortunately, we’ve run out of members.

“All our members are mainly 70 plus, and we just can’t do a lot of the things that Lions do anymore.”

The Macarthur & District Lions Club purchased the building in 1995.

“Five of the original members put in $1000 each and bought it,” Mrs Duyvestyn said.

“We were one of the few V2 Lions Clubs in the district to actually own their own building.

“My husband Andrew and I have been members since 2006.”

She said there were a number of highlights of which the Club was proud, including fostering strong community engagement which made it very rewarding.

“We‘ve made some amazing friends,” Mrs Duyvestyn said.

“All the volunteering we’ve done - we volunteer at the Port Fairy Folk Festival every year - that’s our biggest fundraiser - that kept us going.

“We also do lots of other fun things, lunches and functions that we worked at.”

Mrs Duyvestyn said it was pleasing that other district Lions Clubs were absorbing some of the Macarthur Lions members.

“Some of our members are transferring their membership to Heywood and Port Fairy - the rest are retiring,” she said.

“My husband and I - we’re both transferring our membership to Heywood.”