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The Costalegre Rotary Club meets at Rooster’s restaurant in Melaque every Wednesday morning at 9AM, rain, shine, or hurricane!

The club was fully chartered by Rotary International in February of 2008 and serves the area that stretches from Cihuatlan in the south to somewhere north of La Manzanilla. All are welcome at our breakfast meetings and we frequently have traveling Rotarians ‘making up’ a meeting with us as they pass thru.

We have many members and guests who winter in this area and provide the extra energy needed to make this club lively and dynamic. We have members from at least 5 countries, if we include Quebec in the tally, and our Mexican members provide some of the additional sensibilities and insights when it is time to handle red tape and matters of decorum.  We usually let the Canadians handle the fiesta issues at our fundraisers, as they seem to be pros. Our club is a bit different in that we have many couples that might ordinarily join separate clubs, but, we are the only club in the area.

We focus our charitable work in the areas of literacy when we buy or build for local schools. Often, our gift is small, but precisely what the asking school official needs. One time it was a new stove and countertop for a primary school serving over 400 children every day…another time it was bricks and cement to build a school kitchen. And one time we made curtains so the kids could read the computer screens without glare…total cost was under $85 US, but, we had the ability to help the small village school in the way they saw their need.

 We address public health issues as we buy, build, or give labor to local clinics. We recently replaced a washing machine for the Salud in Barra, thus reducing the risk of infection to the children of the nurse who was doing the laundry in her home.

And we help with environmental concerns by giving to organizations attempting to promote conservation, litter abatement programs in the schools, and it’s possible the club saved some sea turtles as well. We are well networked with other associations in the area and enjoy the resource sharing on a regular basis.

Our 2009 Chili Cook Off will be on Feb. 7th at the square in Barra de Navidad. We are always looking for new cooks and volunteers. This is our biggest fundraiser and promises to be a pretty good party. Come along and join us, or, if you can’t attend, come by a meeting and we’ll put your talents to work ahead of time!

John Jankovsky
Vice President, jjjankovsky@gmail.com