The Farmville Area Kiwanis Club on Thursday presented — as the club’s last act of service — a $12,000 donation to the Town of Farmville for the purchase of new playground equipment for Grove Street Park in Farmville.

According to Farmville Kiwanis Secretary and Treasurer Patty Vance, the club is disbanding due to a lack of membership.

“It’s kind of a little much to go year after year; there’s not enough of us, because we’re associated with Kiwanis International, and there’s not enough of us to satisfy their requirements, you know, which is how many board members, secretary, treasurer, vice-president, all that stuff. We just don’t have enough people,” Vance said. “… We just don’t have it now.”

The club started fundraising for the playground in 2014.

“Basically, the fundraisers that we’ve done, and it’s mostly the community that buys from us, but we would bring lobsters in from Maine and shrimp in from the Outer Banks and sell them and they’re all pre-sold and then we get the extra money from that to put toward things. We did collect a lot of money for Christmas and we gave them to about 250 kids each year. They got gifts that we went and bought for them,” Vance said. “There was money leftover from that last year, so that’s in that check as well.”

Among the fundraisers, the club received donations from the Women’s Club of Farmville, the Farmville Jaycees, businesses and individuals.

“This is a good, fitting end. It’s a lot of money to be able to donate,” Vance said. According to Vance, the playground equipment the Kiwanis is asking the Town of Farmville to purchase would be for children in the 5-12 age range.

The Farmville Area Kiwanis Club was formed in 2009. According to a press release, it is a part of Kiwanis International, a global organization of volunteers dedicated to improving the world one child and one community at a time.

The release cited that the primary focus for the Farmville Kiwanis has been serving the children in Prince Edward and Buckingham counties.