Kilrymont Rotary hosts Loches Rotary Club

L-R.  Cyril Joumier, Chris Coombs, John Peacock, Andree Joumier, Michele Denechere, Guy Denechere, John Fernie, Alan Constable.

In 2017 at the suggestion of the St Andrews Twinning Alliance, members of the Rotary Club of St Andrews visited the local Rotary club in the city’s twin town of Loches, located in the Loire Valley, France.

This week, five members of the Loches club arrived in St Andrews to cement the growing relationship between the clubs and also to forge a new partnership with the Rotary Club of Kilrymont St Andrews.

Kilrymont Senior Vice President John Fernie welcomed them and two St Andrews Club members, Alan Constable and John Peacock, to the club at a meeting on Tuesday.

The visitors were Chris Coombs MBE, a past president of Ebbw Vale Rotary in Wales, who now resides near Loches; Andree and Cyril Joumier (Andree is the Loches Club secretary) and Guy and Michele Denechere.

Alan Constable told the meeting that the people of both St Andrews and Loches now had a very close friendship and the visits of the Rotary Clubs could only strengthen that situation.

Guy Denechere, President of the Loches Rotary, said his club had been founded in 1959 and currently had 29 members. Their main activities, similar to the Kilrymont Club, were primarily based on supporting and developing youth projects. They funded student exchanges with the USA and Argentina, fund-raised regularly for a childrens’ hospital, and donated to cystic fibrosis research.

Guy and John Fernie exchanged club banners at the end of what was a very entertaining evening