MEMBERS of the Inner Wheel Club of Dumbarton held a special lunch recently to celebrate 60 years since the formation of the club.

Recently the members of the Inner Wheel club of Dumbarton held a special lunch in the Abbotsford Hotel to celebrate the formation of their club on the 18th of June, 1962, in the Queens Hotel, Helensburgh.

Club president Carol Tennant welcomed district chairman, Joann Allan to cut the cake and give the toast.

The address to the members at the end of the meal was given by the President of Dumbarton Rotary, Wing Commander George Campbell, a weel-kent face in the local community.

The Dumbarton club was formed at the Queens Hotel in Helensburgh on June 18, 1962, though the first Inner Wheel club was founded in Manchester in 1924.

Clubs have since spread to 103 countries with around 100,000 members worldwide, 13,000 being in Great Britain and Ireland.

Dumbarton IW held a very successful fund-raising musical evening at Cardross Golf Club in May and several of its ladies took part in the Kiltwalk.

Funds raised have gone to Smile Train, MND and the Nora Docherty Foundation.

Inner Wheel members still knit and clubs collect tons of useful goods to help support the local communities but much of it is now sent abroad.

In the UK clubs support refuge centres for abused women, child centres and drop-in centres, school breakfast clubs and much more.

Inner Wheel in Great Britain and Ireland has raised more than £2.8 million for various charities in the past two years.