The best of times have come to an end for members of the Chatham-Kent Dickens Fellowship.
The club, which celebrated the works of author Charles Dickens, is folding after more than 15 years due to a lack of new people joining, said Patricia Pook, vice-chair of the group.
She said the club had close to 100 members, but most are all getting older and people don’t seem to have as much interest in classic literature.
“Even though we had a good response and support from the community – and a good response as far as the events that we put on – nobody ever signed up to become a member,” said Pook, who joined about seven years ago.
The fellowship held a breakfast every year to celebrate Dickens’ birthday and raised funds to go towards arts and education.
“We do have some money available and we’ve talked to the University of Windsor and St. Clair College, and we would like to supply some bursaries,” said Pook.
The club originally began with the idea it would put on performances of Dickens’ plays and books at the Chatham Capitol Theatre, which was still in its formative years at the time, said Pook.
Since Dickens lived for a time in Chatham, England, it seemed like a great idea, but those plans did not materialize, she said.
The club started out as a reading club but became more of a social club, according to Pook.
The Dickens Fellowship will be selling off its costumes on April 27 at the Community of Christ Church at 174 Faubert Dr. in Chatham from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Proceeds will go towards the post-secondary bursaries in the arts.
“We have a variety of costumes from maids’ costumes to ladies in the upper classes. We have some beautiful top hats and gentlemen woolen coats, which are the Dickensian style,” she said. “And surprisingly, when we were going through them, we found quite a few that would be associated with re-enactments for the War of 1812.”
Pook said many of the articles of clothing have barely been worn, and she has reached out to theatre groups in Chatham-Kent, Windsor, Sarnia and Petrolia to visit the sale.
“The costumes are really priced more than reasonably because the idea is we want people to enjoy them and use them,” she said.
Pook said as far she knows there are no longer any literary clubs in Chatham-Kent.
“We’ve had many years of good times and events that we feel brought some culture and education to Chatham,” she said. “Hopefully someone else will get involved and get another literary club going in Chatham.”
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