The 26th Supper of the Academy of the Codfish of New England held at the Beira Alta Restaurant in Fall River, Massachusetts, U. S. A., was another success, on Monday, January 20^th, 2003.

We had again 130 people participating. The food was delicious and the environment very friendly and pleasant. We had excellent participation of original poetry in English and Portuguese, by Comadre Daniel Amaral, Comadre Sara Furtado and Compadre Pedro Amaral.

Pedro Amaral presented our "Fiel Amigo" of the Month: President Abraham Lincoln and the abolishment of slavery, because our supper took place on Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday. He gave a detailed information regarding the dates of other countries and the U. S. A., in 1863, when slavery was stopped.

Our Compadre Raul Benevides did an excellent job as usual with his jokes, giving everyone an opportunity to have a good and hearty bunch of laughs.

Fourteen people from the Primavera or Spring Restaurant of Tiverton, RI, came to this supper. Our Compadre João Rodrigues the owner of the restaurant brought with him his family and all the employees to our 25^th supper of codfish.

Everyone knows that our suppers are a Portuguese family reunion. This example of the Spring restaurant coming to another Portuguese restaurant (Beira Alta) is indeed the best example, that the suppers of codfish are Portuguese family reunions! All of us rejoiced this event.

Here are three pages of photos taken at the 26^th Supper of Codfish of the Academy of New England.