A ROTARY club which has been at the heart of a community since 1964 has had its last pensioners' coffee morning before shutting up shop. 

Ambleside Rotary Club has served its community for 59 years but it can no longer continue operations due to the age of the current membership and difficulty recruiting more people. By the end of June, the club will finish. 

The club's final event was a coffee morning for the over 60s at The Salutation Hotel. The Rotary Club estimates that it has donated on average £12,000 a year for local, national and international causes. 

Local projects the Rotary Club financed or helped with included The Calvert Trust at Bassenthwaite, The Sunbeams Music Trust at Penrith, the provision of playground equipment on Greenbank Road, support for the local Girl Guides and Brownies, The Parish Centre, Food Bank, Our Place Youth Club and the Quiz Kids competition for four local junior schools. The winning school would donate a cash prize to a charity of their choice. 

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The club has also donated money to polio treatment, provided clean drinking water in Nepal, and provided relief equipment or funds to areas in the world struck by natural disasters.

Richard Attenborough, the secretary of Ambleside Rotary, said: "Like many other organisations we are finding it difficult to recruit new members. Because of the age profile of our current membership, we can no longer achieve what we used to be. 

"It is a sad day. We have been going just over 59 years. The club was started in 1964. After 59 years numbers have drifted down, particularly through people dying but also people moved south to be with their relatives. 

"Young people have got other commitments these days. Lots of other rotary clubs are in the same position as we are. 

"It is at the heart of the community." 

Ambleside Rotary will distribute the remaining funds in the area and is open for suggestions for local good causes.