Newsletter April 2024
Dear Friends, how quickly this year is going by and global warming is still playing tricks with the seasons, only this week a Spanish friend told me that her daughter living in Granada informed her that it was snowing again. Thinking back to March, this was a month of sunshine and heavy rain and on Saturday the 16th AREME had a table at the Cancelada town halls table sale and it was a beautiful sunny day.
We were there raising funds for a local charity called “The Steps of Noah” a young person who needs very special equipment just to live and we donated €75 after a very successful day. Also in March our regular quiz nights at ViceVersa helped by brilliant support by our members and their friends raised a further €92 over the 2 nights. The AREME quiz nights are now a firm favourite with many regular teams supporting us with up to 30 people attending. As regular readers of our newsletters know we are always keen for you to join us for a coffee on the 1st Monday of the month at Ricks bar and at Neli G’s on the 3rd Monday. Sometimes we add in an additional day and because Easter came early this year, we held a Hot Cross bun and coffee at Ricks on Saturday the 30th March. When we saw the heavy rain with a pretty strong wind blowing, we were sure it was going to be a washout. However, we were so wrong. The committee members who attended were soon joined by many other members, all in good form, to enjoy their morning regardless of the most appalling weather, raising even more money for our charity fund.
This year we are raising the money for the Estepona soup kitchen. The kitchen itself cooks food for local families and offers a delivery service. We are aware that Emmaus, the official name of the organisation are supported by the local government and the Anglian Church also supply food and cash support but times are still hard for those in need and having made contact the committee feel that this is where AREME will use its fund raising money in 2024.
April started with our now regular coffee mornings. At the monthly committee meeting Shirley, the new membership secretary, informed us that membership was now up to 144 and a new committee member was brought onboard. John Smith, a writer for Euro Weekly, has been interested in our progress for a while and as an Estepona resident has agreed to join the committee and should be a great asset.
Francine, our president, who has been unable to work for several weeks was able to get back to her office just before the Foreign Residents Day for Saturday 20th April. This year AREME had our own site and decided to offer fresh cooked pork served in bread rolls and offer tea and coffee. We also gained new members and met people from all round the world. The day is brilliant with many countries
involved but it is a very long (for us) and we left with sore feet and music ringing still in our ears.
Coming up in June we have our HOG ROAST, this year it is being held on June 16th at the regular venue Rita’s Bar. Karen Danzig will be entertaining us once again and we have a great raffle planned with prizes worth over €50 to win. All the money raised will go to our charity. Do support us and have a great day. If you want tickets, contact us at Info.areme2022@gmail.com. Alternatively, come to
one of our coffee mornings, visit Rita’s Bar or contact Jim Stevenson on +34 677 86 69 53.
A letter to the town hall has now been sent to the Mayor asking him to push MOPO to release the permission to start the Blue Bridge at Benavista. AREME are very aware that all the communities who supported the proposal are rightly anxious at the passing of so much time has passed with no move yet to give it the green light.
As you may have read in the Sur in English newspaper, there was an article in relation to the new costal rail line. AREME have been in contact with the townhall to see how we can show our support for this initiative.
There was also an article in relation to the new local bus services being put out to tender. AREME have written to the townhall asking how the various repairs that are required in the Benamara / Benavista area will be given attention. We have been assured the successful bus company will sort out the current problems at the Benavista bus stop. The area around the base of the bridge on Benamara side will be fixed when bridge works are being done. The concern over the lack of pavement between the bridge on the Benamara side and the bus stop will be checked by local police and
traffic officers to assess the level of traffic and pedestrians and they will report their findings to the council. If any members have issues with any other areas along the proposed bus routes, they should raise them with the townhall in the first instance.
We also hope soon to change our Facebook page from a closed to being open to get to more cover and launch the new web page which is still under construction.
Keep safe and best regards to all.