Irvine Seagate Rotary presented a cheque for £300 to the Irvine Folk Club to sponsor once again the Old Folks Concert at Marymass.

At the Seagate Rotary meeting on Monday evening, it was noted that Seagate will be having a stall at the Fourth Port Gala on the Low Green on Saturday, August 17.

Seagate will also be having their hot dogs and crepes stall at Marymass the following week.

Speaker at Seagate on Monday was the club President Ian Dickson, talking about his recent trip to the Rotary International Conference in Hamburg where there were 25,000 delegates from all corners of the globe.

Ian also included a presentation on innovative recycling with community benefit. A young entrepreneur from South Africa is repurposing waste plastic bags. After cleaning and heat treatment they are converted into a tough fabric which is being made into school backpacks.

As a further innovation, each backpack incorporates a solar panel which is sufficient to power a LED light, enabling children in remote communities to continue to study after dark.

A Vote of Thanks to Ian was proposed by Jim Anderson.