Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - The International Friendship Club (IFC) had over 80 members in attendance for their monthly meeting with an end of season brunch at The River Café on Sunday, April 10th. The guests enjoyed a gourmet breakfast, door prizes, bought raffle tickets by the arm's length, and bid on silent auction items while wishing friends a good summer as many head North until next season.

As always, the IFC is able to combine a good time with raising much needed funds to support charitable causes here in the community. One of our members, Louanna Kinder, was celebrating her birthday that day and was surprised with a lovely cake and a serenade by the beautiful voices of The River Cafe wait staff. How much prettier "Las Mañanitas" is than our "Happy Birthday!"

A big "Gracias" to the following local businesses that were kind enough to contribute to this event. We could not do what we do without their ongoing support: Alphacora Gallery, Archie´s Wok, Barbara Warren, Bolero, Brasil, Christopher Wynn, Daiquiri Dick´s, Dee´s Coffee, Dejá New, El Gato Gordo, El Torito, Elements, Encanto, Freddy´s Tucan, Gilmar, Kaiser Maximilian, La Tia Catrina, Lighthouse Foods, Los Arcos "Mi Pueblito" Restaurant, Mama Rosa´s, No Way José!, Origines, Polo´s, The River Café, Tony´s Please, and Yesa Jewelry.

This marks 24 years since the IFC was founded and began its three-fold mission of soliciting and distributing funds and materials in response to the humanitarian needs of our community; promoting friendship through social and cultural activities; and helping to organize and unite our community.

For the last twenty years the primary charity supported by the IFC has been the Cleft Palate Program that was started by IFC member Ron Walker in response to an overwhelming need in this community. Additional funds raised go to support a large variety of other worthy causes such as education, healthcare, and community outreach.

The following is IFC President Mandy MacLeay's end-of-season message summarizing the events organized by the IFC this year.

The high season is closing and what a busy season this has been! We have been able to provide many new projects in addition to our ongoing favourite activities. Our members have been great in donating their time thereby allowing the office to extend its hours to 4:00 o'clock Monday to Friday without any additional cost.

The office and all our club visitors have greatly benefited from the added desk help of the many volunteers like Gloria Munroe, Lynette Fairclough, Jim and Sharron Woods, John Hamlin, Sherry Frish, Terry Horrox and more. The response has been so great that we intend to continue this practice in the next November to April season.

I wish to thank all the members who have donated their expertise, talents and time. They have enabled us to offer a variety of activities to fellow members and clubhouse visitors alike.

My thanks go out to Dan Grippo for his lecture series on so many interesting topics; Mexican politics, religions, history and the impact of the renowned Mexican women on the Mexican culture. To add to his generosity let's not forget his donation of a badly needed CP Monitor!

Thanks also to Murray Beer for sharing his two great loves (not counting Millie) the game of Bridge and opera. Many of us started many years ago with very little or no knowledge of Bridge but the time spent with Murray on Monday mornings has taught us a great appreciation for the game. And our Friday afternoon Social Bridge had as many as 15 tables one week this season!

This year Murray shared with us his love of music and opera by presenting us: The Music of Leonard Bernstein. What a pleasure! We also enjoyed learning a few more dance moves with the teaching of Jan Early.

And Mary Lynn Coulter shared with us her passion for watercolour painting and encouraged us to explore it without fear. And I don't want to forget to mention our excellent and very popular Spanish classes taught by Zuri Caffarella Aguirre, featuring three levels with three classes at each level every week. Classes will resume in the Fall.

Our thanks go to Mike McGee, our Chairperson-Director of Home Tours and his large group of volunteers that make this major fundraiser a success. Mike worked very hard this year in the face of two large challenges: The economic downturn and the direct competition from another charity group offering the same program as ours on another day bringing confusion to the mind of many tourists.

Our every Wednesday and Thursday morning Home Tours beginning in November and ending in April continue to be a trip highlight for many visitors vacationing in Vallarta while funding our Cleft Palate Surgery Program. How wonderful when everybody wins!

With the new challenges comes new ideas! It spurred the whole team of volunteers to truly develop better web tools. We had made various attempts before through the years but we had never taken full advantage of the electronic media to put out our message.

Janie Albright Blank was brought on board in the late summer months and started to develop a new more user friendly website, as she progressed T.J. Hartung, our Newsletter Editor, got more involved and they worked hand and hand. In January they presented our members at the General Meeting a brand new website that is proving very popular already. T. J. is continuing to make improvements to it and keeping the data updated. I encourage you to visit it at ifcvallarta.com.

Janie is also our co-publicist chairperson and with her great reporting talents and Bob Davidson wonderful photo taking we have been able to showcase the great work our IFC members accomplish in the community. Janie has also set us up on Facebook! Please become a friend of IFC Vallarta.

Part of this great working team is the Barbara and Mel Bornstein one. Their energy and loyalty to the Club since it's' inception is remarkable. Barbara with a team of volunteers at hand, got Al Badner to do the fliers art work, successfully organized a great St. Valentine's Day dinner and Gala Luncheon Fashion Show, not to be outdone Mel with the help of Fred Forbes made a success of the St. Patrick's Day dinner.

Our latest event "The Gala Luncheon Fashion Show" on March 25th was a sold out event. The fashion and lunch were presented in the attractive venue of Coco´s Kitchen. Toody Walton presented her "Coleccion La Bohemia" beautifully and the models were great! My thanks to Donna Feldman, who hosted it.

A huge thank you goes to Fred Forbes for keeping our clubhouse facilities in such great shape and for all the new improvements he comes up with. Added to this is his managing of "The Monday night movies", the Friday night cocktail and dinners he organize that have allowed all of us to connect with each other, from old to new members, to first comers and family visitors. Each of us have found a friendly place to drop in and develop new friendships.

Let's not forget our "out in the field" group where we also have dedicated volunteers that donate such a great part of their time and energy in response to the needs of the children and their families in need. Susan Davalos and Patricia Mendez are our Chairpersons for Community Services and Medical respectively.

Susan and Patricia spend countless volunteer hours meeting the needs of the less fortunate in Vallarta and making sure the Cleft Palate Program runs smoothly. Mel Bornstein is our Chairperson for Education. What we all do as volunteers at the IFC is to provide the necessary funds that supports many needs that are facing our community, may it be medical, educational or nutritional.

It goes without saying that none of this could be accomplished without a great executive supporting team. So my thanks to the Executive Board that helped me keep the ship running smoothly; Bill LeBeau, Vice President for Administration and Fred Forbes, Vice President of Management Facilities who both will continue on for another two-year term; Ira Horowitz, Treasurer; Linda Horowitz, Recording Secretary and Helen Hartung, Corresponding Secretary.

We welcome our newly elected treasurer, Michael Montagno; Recording Secretary, Lynette Fairclough; Corresponding Secretary, Eric Davies and Vice President of Membership Development, Jack Kirkpatrick. Together we will accomplish much!

Like many of you I am heading back north for the summer, but communication is always open, so do drop me a note, call to say Hello, enjoy each day, be happy.

Have a great summer,
Mandy MacLeay, President

As you can see this is a busy group and one you might consider becoming involved with next season. The IFC has over 400 current members so whether you would like to donate your time or our talent or just have fun, we would love to meet you and have you be part of our group.

Beginning May 1 the building where the IFC is housed will be undergoing renovations that should last about 6 weeks. Once we are back in the Clubhouse you can once again call us at (322) 222-5466. You might also want to become on friend of IFCVallarta on Facebook!

The International Friendship Club is a registered charitable organization in Mexico, listed as Club Internacional de la Amistad. It is located at Edificio Parian del Puente #13, Calle Libertad Corner Miramar in downtown Puerto Vallarta. See the IFC website for a map. Phone: (322) 222-5466. Website: ifcvallarta.com. Email: ifcvallarta(at)gmail.com. We can also be reached from the USA or Canada by calling (514) 418-2123.