Members, visiting Rotarians and guests gathered at the D’Mestres Restaurant in Pêra to look back at President Rainer Kroth’s many achievements in the past year and to look forward to President Jim Kennedy’s focus on Fun, Fellowship and Fundraising in the coming year.

Chef Nidia delighted all present with a fabulous authentic Alentejo feast.

As is traditional Rainer and Jim performed the Flag ceremony with honoured guest José Manuel Sosa Governor’s assistant for the coming year.

Rainer reviewed the activities of RC Silves for the Rotary year 2023-2024 and thanked everyone involved. He especially addressed the leaders of projects and the board members. He stated that members and friends commitment to investing their time and talents for the community creates hope in the world and makes Rotary magical. This year’s theme.

Fatima had an extra surprise for Rainer as she presented the club with a recognition certificate for the number of new members the club had recruited over the last rotary year.

The moment then came for Rainer to pass the symbols of the presidency (necklace, pin) to the incoming 2024-2025 president, Jim Kennedy.

Jim outlined his focus for the year was to build on the growth of new members and provide opportunities for the members old and new to bond. He thanked Rainer for his success in growing the membership and drawing the club closer to Rotary clubs across the Algarve. He expressed the need to focus on more fund raising as there was a lot of activities the members wanted to achieve this year. He looked forward to Fun, Fellowship and Fundraising.

He started the year by pinning 3 new members, Angelika Rahe-Marquis and Peter Mapham and Gail Mapham

Representatives from all those Rotary clubs present at the meeting wished Jim all the best for the new Rotary year and Assistant Governor Dr José Manuel Sosa presented the best wishes of the Governor Paulo Taveira de Sousa and his message for the year.

At the recent Governor’s meeting, Rainer Kroth President of Silves Rotary Club expressed his pleasure in welcoming José as a new member.  José is a citizen of the USA, originally a Pacific Islander born and raised on the island of Guam. He lived in San Francisco for 30 years prior to his move to Lagos. He has worked in finance for all of his life in the Far East, the Middle East, North Africa as well as the U.S. In 2015 he moved to the Republic of Panama, where he became a member of the Rotary Club of Boquete, Panama for about 4 years. He served as President and Treasurer of the club. The governor pinned on the Rotary emblem, and all members welcomed José to the club. They looked forward to working with him.

Rainer Kroth RC Silves President began with an overview of some of the activities and Isabel Flores RC Silves founder member translated into Portuguese for the Governor and our Portuguese guests.  Jim Kennedy incoming President presented a booklet telling the story of the fundraising walk to Santiago.

David Trubshaw, who had arranged an exhibition of the “Arte e Poesia” books, explained the history of the underlying work with the schools and handed over one of the books to the Governor as a present.

Following the flag ceremony, the governor delivered a powerful speech on the importance of friendship and fellowship within and among Rotary clubs. He emphasized that friendship is a high value and one of the most basic human needs. Rotarians help each other, and together they help others. Good relationships make us happier and healthier. “Treasure your relationships, not your possessions. Give hope to the world.”

As a symbol of Rotarian attitudes and values, David Valente presented a piece of art created by Guilherme Ildefonso de Melo Gomes Pontes to celebrate the work of Rotary clubs. The artwork is made of Estremoz marble (bottom), steel (middle), and pine wood (top). David explained the symbolic meaning of each piece, using examples from our work in Rotary.

As a symbol of their friendship, our guests from the Rotary Club of Sines represented by Vice-Presidente Manuel Guedes handed over their flag to our club President Rainer.

Rainer expressed his pleasure in welcoming José as a new member and highlighted important milestones in his life, including his past experience as treasurer and president of the Rotary Club of Boquete, Panama. The governor pinned on the Rotary emblem, and all members present welcomed José to the club.

Rainer expressed the pleasure of welcoming Sian as a new member. Sian was educated in Portuguese schools in Silves and Armaçao de Pêra, where she met Professora Isabel Flores as her Portuguese teacher her sponsor in Rotary.  She is fluent in English and Portuguese, working in tourism where she added Spanish and French. Currently Sian works as a Business Development Manager at Farming Futures. In partnership with farms in the Philippines, their mission is to improve the genetic quality of livestock with the aim of achieving food security. Sian would like to be involved in the rehabilitation and guidance of young women who are in trouble and help to motivate and inspire them to choose a better path. Sian’s passion is music, which she created in her “home studio” until her baby girl arrived. She would like to be involved in Rotary’s educational programs for example with the children creating music for the Oscar’s. Members look forward to working with Sian.