On Saturday 1st of December 36 members and guests of the St.Patrick's Society of the Algarve joined leader, Joe Goodwin, for a delightful walk around the estuary in Alvor.
Afterwards, the group had an enjoyable lunch in the Restinga Ria restaurant on the promenade,where the wine flowed freely and an impromptu sing-song occurred.
No rain but a bit chilly for the ASB November ride through the hills around Salir starting in Paderne.
The ride was well attended and with so many bikers it was decided by organisers Steve Wills and David Shirley to split the riders into two groups.
The Saint Andrew’s Society of the Algarve held its annual Saint Andrew’s Ball at the Penina Hotel on Saturday 24 November. This was highly successful with around 100 participants. Our piper Malcolm MacGillivray greeted guests into the hotel and then led the parade into the ball after the champagne reception.
Almancil International Rotary Club members recently attended a school year awards ceremony for pupils attending Escola EB 2/3 Dr Antonio de Sousa Agostinho in Almancil. The ceremony held at the beautiful Igreja de Nossa Senhora de Fátima in Almancil, courtesy of Padre George, was attended by proud parents and AIRC members.
Finally a break in rain clouds allowed the Algarve Senior Bikers to stage the postponed October ride on Wednesday the 7th of November.
Many of the members had left home in wet or damp conditions to ride to the meeting point in Sao Marcos de Serra. However, as forecast, while enjoying a coffee at the start of the ride the weather cleared leaving bright sunny conditions for the rest of the day even if a little chilly in the hills.
Rotary Club Estoi Palace International (RCEPI) was chartered 10 years ago and to recognise this and reflect on the work of the Club and Rotary in the community a celebration dinner was held at the Quinta da Senhora Menina in Faro and we were delighted to have Dr. Rogerio Bacalhau, President of Faro Camara as our guest of honour.
For the last 7 years Rotary Club Estoi Palace International (RCEPI) has given a Portuguese / English and English / Portuguese dictionary to each of the 5th year students of the School “Poeta Emiliano da Costa in Estoi. On the 23rd of October 60 dictionaries were handed out by RCEPI President Bruno Costa to 60 pupils to help them with their education.
In 2008 Almancil International Rotary Club, (AIRC) for the first time joined with other Portuguese Rotary clubs in sponsoring young students to participate in the Rotary Summer Camp Scheme. The camps are organised by Rotary clubs all over the world, with the aim of introducing young students to their counterparts from different countries and cultures. In that first year AIRC sponsored two students to attend a camp in Manchester in the UK.
Since then the number of applications has grown exponentially. This year AIRC Rotarians Dr Raymond Parfait and Patricia Doling, together with Sra Lourdes Seidenstricker of Dra Laura Ayres School in Quarteira had the unenviable task of interviewing 22 students, from which 18 were chosen to spend two weeks at camps which included Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Slovakia and, of course, Manchester in the UK. The total number of students attending for the whole of Portugal was 27.
