CHORLEY Adventure Youth Club has bounced back -- after facing almost certain closure.

Only weeks after the club was about to fold it has re-formed and is better than ever, says club leader Paul Glucklich.

Paul told the Citizen: "We had 80 members until November but there was so much apathy in the club.

"In the weeks running up to the AGM the few who were interested were begging 'please don't let it close'. Now we have only got ten out of the original 80 and we are much better for it."

After a stormy AGM two weeks ago -- followed by a string of resignations -- the club's membership tumbled.

"We would like to keep it small. We have been running the club for 28 years and we always used to limit it to 30 or 40, but 18 months ago we took on more members.

"We did have a lot of people on a waiting list and it was an experiment. It just grew and grew. There was such a high demand for places on some of the activities that we were losing a lot of the interested ones because they could not get on the activities."

Apathy among the members was the biggest problem.

"We even had members who we had never even met," said Paul.

When the threat of closure became public there seemed little concern in Chorley.

Paul said: "Not one person phoned to say 'keep it going'. But we did get phone calls from people wanting our equipment. It was sad that after 28 years that was the only thing people were interested in."

The new-look club has now re-formed on a three-month trial basis.

"This month has worked very well. If we can stay like this for the next three months then we will carry on.

"Our biggest problem is funds. So we stipulate if members join they have got to help raise money," said Paul

And older members and parents will be doing just that, with a fancy dress fund-raising pub crawl round the outskirts of Chorley on Friday, December 15, starting 9pm. OUTWARD bound: The club involved youngsters in many outdoor activities.