LATCHING on to the social and community opportunities offered by the only Borders branch of a worldwide organisation appears to be catching.

Just a year ago it was a big struggle for the Peebles & District Round Table.

With membership at an all time low there were real fears that it would have to fold.

Moving on 12 months and the dark days are forgotten as numbers grow with new recruits enticed by a mix of fun and fundraising.

Founded in 1927 in Norwich, there has been a long-held view among many that the Round Table is entirely the province of the older, middle-class male.

But speak to any of the members in the Peebles & District branch - whose trades include IT, marketing and events - and it will soon become apparent that that is not the case.

“A lot of people simply don’t realise what Round Table is about,” said 41-year-old David Innes, who took over as chairman in March.

“We are just normal guys with young families. This gives us the chance to get out of the house to enjoy social events and do something for the community.” David’s predecessor Mark Pyman said: “To some people it might look as if we are specialist club, but that is most definitely not the case.

“We are open to all men of any age. Technically Round Table is supposed to be for the age range 18-45 but locally we’ve never stuck to that.” Mark, 43, an events producer, said: “I am delighted to say that in my time things have turned round and more people are coming to join us. When I took over last March we had just four members - it was the lowest it had ever been and we were on the edge.

“A lot of the problems were down to people’s lifestyle - they are working lots of hours - and with Peebles something of a commuter town they don’t have the time to give up their nights.

“But we’ve worked hard to attract new people and the result is that we’ve doubled our membership with hopefully more to come. “We’ve tried to make an effort by putting stuff on Facebook and getting involved speaking socially and at school fairs and the like.

“We have upped our game on the social side - it’s fun and fundraising hand-in-hand. We are all dads and the theme is very much family and we have our kids with us at many of the events.” The Round Tablers and their families have enjoyed visits to a theme park, barbecues, go-karting - and had their traditional float at the Beltane Festival.

“We are trying to have a social event once a month - it’s a conscious effort from us to do the social stuff more often,” said David, who works in IT. Last year we were desperate for more members and although we are now more relaxed about it, it would still be great for more members to join us. It would give us scope to do even more. There has been an image problem and we are trying to move away from the idea that we are just for middle-class professionals.

“At present our youngest member is in his early thirties and long term we want to keep bringing the age down - the younger, the better for our membership.

“For somebody just moved to the Peebles area this a great way to meet new people. It’s always difficult when you move somewhere new getting into a social circle.” The group’s fundraising activities have already been helped by the larger membership.

Last weekend’s Mile of Silver event in Peebles High Street was marred by cold weather and the presence of politicians campaigning ahead of yesterday’s election. But it would have been worse if there had been fewer assisting in the effort.

One of the newer members Chris Davey, 37, who works in marketing, said: “We want to thank everyone who donated last week. It was freezing out there, but because all the members shared the load we weren’t in the cold too long!” Last year the group raised £7,919.87 for local causes with the biggest fundraiser being Santa’s Sleigh which realised £2,425.36 during its nine days of travel round the area. In the past the Round Table has used some of its fundraising to pay for the Fireworks Display but with Stobo Spa sponsoring the event for at least three years this will free up more money to give away.

“We’re very grateful to Stobo Spa for their help and it will help to make the fireworks bigger and better as well as allowing us to give more money to local causes,” said David.

“We are on a much more secure footing now which is allowing us to concentrate more on the social side of things but we are not forgetting out fundraising and want to try to build relationships with more groups in the community.” Roughly one-third of the money the Round Table raises is still available for worthwhile causes. “We have given most of our money to children’s organisations, “ said David. “We get application letters all the time and if people have things they need money for they should get in touch.” For more information go to www.peeblesroundtable.co.uk.