The President of the Rotary Club of Cork, Ireland Mary O'Shea, a frequent visitor to The Algarve is always a welcome guest at Almancil International Rotary Club's (AIRC) meetings. When earlier this year Mary invited members to attend the Rotary Club of Ireland's District Conference, members, including AIRC President Uschi Kuhn together with AIRC members Dorothy & John Slatter, Alice Krings, Madeline Maher and Claire Busbridge immediately began making plans for the trip.
"It was a wonderful opportunity for us to meet fellow Rotarians and exchange fund-raising ideas" said Uschi. "Of course it was also an opportunity to experience the famous Irish hospitality as well and we weren't disappointed" she said. "We were given the red carpet treatment and a standing ovation at the conference. Trips were organised for us to visit a famous English market, Spike Island, the second largest natural harbour in the world and, of course we were entertained with traditional Irish music and dancing".
The guest speakers at the conference included Kenny Jacobs the Chief Marketing Officer of Ryanair and Chief of Staff designate of the Irish Defence Forces Rear Admiral Mark Mallett DSM PhD.
The main purpose of Rotary is to give back to our communities which in our club means helping people young and old less fortunate than ourselves by delivering much needed equipment or providing unforgettable experiences for students we send on exchange visits. Our inter-schools cookery competition which we will be running again in 2016 in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Silves has attracted interest this year from even more schools in the Algarve. It has given young students the opportunity to test their skills on willing Rotarian volunteers. Coincidentally the Rotary Club of Cork also runs a cookery competition for young people so it may be we can exchange our experiences.
We have invited all the members of the Cork Club to come and visit us next year for the Portugal Rotary Conference in May, and enjoy the wonderful scenery and friendliness of the people of The Algarve.
For further details of the Almancil International Rotary Club, please visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/almancilintlrotary.
