Jesters Care for Kids Charity Drive 2013, Sponsored by Glencore International and Canadian Jackalope Open
Children from Fountain of Life
Center blissfully dance on what may have been, for them, the best day so far in
their young lives. A change of venue to The Regent’s International School turned
out to be a blessing for the annual Jesters Care for Kids Children’s Fair on
Sunday, Sept. 8, providing a great place to hold this charity event. The turnout
was big, the money raised was huge, and everyone who took part had a great day,
despite a temporary time out due to a short rain shower.
Bernie Tuppin
The planning for this year’s Jesters Fair was thrown a curve ball in the
early stages when the venue of the past 11 years was unavailable owing to change
of management. All those years toying with the configuration of attractions and
layout suddenly became redundant. The selection of a new venue was no easy task
for the committee as areas that could accommodate our needs and the balance with
restrictions placed on the use of them narrowed the list considerably. Finally,
after approaching The Regent’s School Pattaya and getting their consent, we knew
we had found our place.
The next step was for the planning team to go back to the drawing board. Many
visits to the new location and hours and hours of consultation were required
before the final configuration was determined. A huge thank you to Regents
School’s proprietors and staff, particularly, Mike Walton, principal, and Paul
Crouch, assistant principal, who made every effort to accommodate our
requirements. Kudos to Bill, Kevin, Sam and Woody for their valuable work in
creating a layout that gave easy access to all attractions and took advantage of
the existing covered areas.
Representatives from The Regent’s
International School sing the national anthem before opening Jesters Care for
Kids 2013 Charity Fair.
The main fear was damaging the new grassy area of the oval,
which prevented any vehicles from actually going on it. Instead, all vehicles
had to park on the surrounding tarmac and hand carry all supplies back and forth
to and from their stalls. The other concern was that the grass had to be kept
like new as possible, since the field was required for sports activities
immediately after the fair.
Still another worry for some was getting out to the school, so for these people
we put on shuttle buses between Father Ray’s Foundation on Sukhumvit and
Regent’s School. The Whitehouse Condotel, the Golf Club and Brian Abbot
graciously furnished their minibuses for this helpful service.
The opening ceremony began at 10 a.m. with the performance of the national
anthem sung beautifully by a Regent’s School student, followed by the welcoming
addresses by Jesters president, Lewis Underwood and Regent’s School principal,
Mike Walton, to get the proceedings underway. With the sun out and visitors
streaming into the grounds, it was then handed over to Russell Jay and Poodle
Pete, emcees extraordinaire, who tirelessly kept the stage show moving along and
keeping the visitors up to date with all the happenings.
The very talented Pookpick enthralls
the audience with her violin performance.
This year’s entertainment program began with performances by our project
children from Fountain of Life Centre, Blind School, Baan Jing Jai, Hand to Hand
Foundation, Mercy Centre, Camillian Centre and Khao Bai Sri. All of these
children performed with abundant energy and enthusiasm, whether singing or
dancing, which is one of the few ways that they are able to show their
appreciation for the support that we have given them.
This year we had the enjoyable experience to witness the talents of the Thai
Tims Chorus. This group of more than 50 children came all the way from Nai Am in
Chantaburi Province to perform. Theirs is an interesting story as they are
funded primarily by the Celtic Football Club and its supporters in far away
Scotland, along with Singha Corporation. The formation of the group and its aims
are to assist in exposing the educational needs and welfare of children with
Down’s syndrome and several of the group has this ailment. Special thanks to the
Regent’s School who provided accommodation for the children and their carers
during their stay.
Bubbles everywhere bring smiles to
the children.
With the children performances over, they were free to take advantage of the
attractions made available for them. The climbing wall sponsored by the Pattaya
Pickle Company, always popular, several contracted game stalls and activities
designed for children were available in stalls manned by international school
students. Of course, the bouncy castle was getting a real work over and is
always a great way for kids to work up an appetite and expend a bit of excess
energy.
A new attraction this year was Active City Adventure Land for kids. This
installation consisted of a maze of nets, ropes, ladders and swings. It appeared
to be like a junior assault course demanding all sorts of physical skills to
complete it, but with safety harnesses and help and encouragement from the
trained attendants, most kids managed and all seemed to enjoy the experience.
This attraction was sponsored by Uni Gold Shipping Ltd.
While the children were at play, adults were scouring the PILC white elephant
stall looking for bargains [one trash is another’s treasure] and restocking
their reading material at Jameson’s used book stall. This year’s special was a
mystery box [about 20 books] for 500 baht. Many also took the opportunity to
visit the Pattaya Sports Club’s Stall to purchase tickets in the Children’s
Raffle and the chance to win one of the many prizes available.
Garden International School’s IB
students ran various activities to raise money for charity.
With the crowd building and nearing lunchtime, food became important and there
was no shortage of options, starting with traditional Thai som tam, etc. from
Noi’s Kitchen, Pad Thai, American Philly Cheese Steak from the Blue Moose, Logo
Trade and Women With a Mission had BBQ’s available. There was also Patricia’s
Homemade, Our Home Bakery and Tamar Center offered a selection of cakes and
pastries, while Kronborg Café and The Haven also had delicious food available.
(Note: food stalls were so popular on the day that many ran out chow midday and
had to arrange to get more rations delivered from town.)
The children were not forgotten either with AGS Fourwinds giving free ice cream
right alongside the Jelly Belly’s candy stall, and the FOL Chow Hall was busy
keeping project children fed and watered. For those with a thirst, plenty of
soft drink was available and for adults Wine Direct was open for samples and
sales while the Jesters members were kept very busy with cold beer sales. A
special thanks to all who donated beer for this occasion.
Rotary Club Eastern Seaboard Pattaya
continues to do their part to help those less fortunate, including putting an
end to world polio.
As the entertainment continued with items from different international school
bands, dark clouds gathered and some rain began to fall, which caused an
interval in the proceedings as a safety precaution. However, the delay was not
long and after a brief appearance by Bruce, the magician, the stage was soon
rocking again. Sets were presented by bands from Regents, St. Andrews, Garden
International and ISE Schools, one of which was an all girl band. The music was
interspersed with appearances by Pookpick and her violin [a very talented young
lady] and the return of the Thai Tims group. Jester Richy, who organized the
day’s entertainment schedule, said that he was impressed with the competency of
all the artists.
With the last school band leaving the stage, it was time for the Fountain of
Life ‘best of class’ children to receive their bicycles. These were donated by
Jeff Jester and presented in memory of Chris Kays. This year, 8 children were
beneficiaries. Then, while PSC members were preparing for the Raffle drawing,
the members of the local Salsa Community took over the stage for a lively
display of their dance, encouraging participation from the audience, which was a
great way to shed a few kilos.
With the raffle drawing over, it was time to wind down the show and Richy
introduced local entertainers Slow Ride and The Core. These two bands are truly
professional, which was an ideal way to top off a great day!
This year we had the enjoyable
experience to witness the talents of the Thai Tims Chorus.
Any time an event of this nature is presented there are particular people to
thank, without whose efforts it would not succeed; so in no particular order,
and apologies if not named, but you know who you are. Firstly, all of our
sponsors and supporters, as well as the Jesters MC members who assisted in
preparing the venue, manned the beer stall, organized the shuttle buses, sold
raffle tickets and stayed behind to aid the dismantling and clean the grounds.
There was also the Bangkok Hospital Pattaya, and their ambulance and trained
staff available for emergencies, the YWCA ladies and Regent’s students who
helped with the children’s raffle; Linden and the gap students for organizing
the field games for the children and PILC for the prizes. Thanks also to Richy
for putting together an enjoyable program and to Chief for the sound system. To
the staff of the Regents for their cooperation and finally to Jester’s Care for
Kids committee and their tireless leader Lewis [Woody] Underwood.
That’s it for another year and we hope you had a great time with our project
kids. They are special to us and we thank you all for sharing time with them.
* Please remember that our Gala Party Night is at the Amari Hotel on Saturday
Night 21st September, great food, beer wine and soft drinks included terrific
entertainment auction and raffle with great prizes. Dress smart casual. B2, 200
tickets charge. There are a few tables left. *
[email protected]
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PSC Children’s Raffle Result
Remote car Lego Set: Steve Gould, Radio/CD/MP3: Dave
Crawford, Games Set: Prakorn Thip, PC Tablet: Marc Fitzgerald, Giant
Teddy: Lisa Mason, Computer Game: Merk McGirr, Elec Fan: Kevin Fisher,
Piano Keyboard: Emmy, Remote Helicopter: Jemma, Ladies / Men’s Watch:
Neil Phukit, Luggage Set: Noi, Mountain Bike: Pakorn Thip, DVD Player:
Riab, BHP Hosp Voucher: Daeng, 32 in Flat TV: Warren Cardwell. |
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Beer
Donors
Oliver Minto, Chris Hogg, Jerry Zaft, Ray TQ, Neil S., Craig Kluske, Rob
Fogelman, Street Claws, Barry Philip, Ann W., Neil Moo, Lena Adahl,
Loveboat, Ron Herbert, Johan Danielsson, Chanop Cameron, Rog MC Garage,
Anders Justal, Panita Jonsson, Christer Nielsen, Jan-Ove Eangen, Par
Kullberg, Roger Olsson, Stefan Widing, Christian Widing, Kari Seppala,
Martin Simonsson, Mon Simonsson, Purple Bar, and Sweet Lou. |
How much fun can you have with
costumes and a camera? Lots!
Taking dead aim, hoping to win a
prize.
Face painting is always a popular
draw at the fair (pun intended).
Children from Pattaya Redemptorist
School for the Blind keep the beat.
Staff from Pattaya Mail Publishing
Co. Ltd., a sponsor since the first charity drive, hand out free newspapers at
the fair.
The huge balloon slide is a bit scary
at first, but great fun for the brave.
Lewis Underwood, chairman of the
Jesters Care for Kids Charity Drive, welcomes everyone to this year’s Children’s
Fair.
Sales of Care for Kids merchandise
were swift, raising much needed funds for charity.
The Fountain of Life ‘best of class’
children receive their bicycles.
Bjarne Nielsen can’t resist the
Jesterswear on sale at the fair.
Lisa Mason happily accepts the Giant
Teddy Bear lucky draw prize from Lewis Underwood, chairman of the Jesters Care
for Kids Charity Drive.
How could you resist buying lucky
draw tickets to raise funds for disabled children from Praichit Jetpai (left),
president of YWCA Pattaya, and friend with their beautiful smiles.
Kevin Fisher, managing director of
CEA, won an evaporative air cooler in the lucky draw.
Women With A Mission were on hand to
promote their worthy charity cause.
