Just five years shy of its 100th anniversary, the Mathews Ruritan Club is reluctantly disbanding. As of the end of this year, the club, whose core mission since 1931 had been to make the community a better place to live and work, will no longer exist, and the money in its long-standing Christmas Blessing Fund will go to Hands Across Mathews, to support that organization’s charitable activities. Club president Dan Reno said the decision was made last month. The work had become too much for the eight aging members who were left in the club, and efforts to recruit new members had proven fruitless. “Nobody wants to get involved anymore,” said Reno. “We used to have 30 people at a meeting, but people have gotten sick, moved away, passed away, and kids are more interested in their video games and such.” Now in his 80s, Reno said he had been the one doing most of the cooking in the funnel cake trailer the club would take to festivals to raise money, and “it was getting to me.” Sonny Richardso...