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Pattaya shops for charity at annual PILC Bazaar
THE shopping event of the year
Brendan Richards
Pattaya is filled with shops offering bargains but the
annual Pattaya International Ladies Club (PILC) Bazaar, held at the Royal
Cliff Beach Resort on October 9, was THE place for shop-aholics. This is
not purely for the bargains and early Christmas shopping to be had, but
more importantly it’s held to benefit the region’s underprivileged
children.
(L-R)
Panga Vathanakul, Royal Cliff Beach Resort managing director, Sharon
Tibbits, PILC president, Atchara Pachimnun, wife of the director
general-department of provincial administration and Arlette Cykman jointly
cut the ribbon declaring the bazaar open.
Organized by Arlette Cykman and her able team, the PILC
Bazaar has made its place as one of the major events in Pattaya. Arlette
welcomed vendors and early shoppers to the bazaar and outlined the
benefactors of which the proceeds are to be distributed.
 Helle
Ransten (right), PILC Welfare chairperson explains the many projects that
the PILC supports on the Eastern Seaboard to Atchara Pachimnun (back
left), wife of the director general-department if provincial
administration during the bazaar tour with Sharon Tibbits (front left),
PILC president.
Atchara Pachimnun, wife of the director-general of the
department of provincial administration, was the guest of honor in the
ribbon cutting ceremony, along with Panga Vathanakul, Royal Cliff Beach
Resort managing director and Arlette Cykman.
 Sharon
Tibbits (left), PILC president escorted Atchara Pachimnun,(center) wife of
the director-general of the department of provincial administration and
Panga Vathanakul, Royal Cliff Beach Resort managing director on a tour of
the PILC Holiday bazaar, held in the hotel’s Siam Ballroom.
A tour of the Royal Cliff’s Siam Ballroom was carried
out, as throngs of shoppers began to arrive. With everything from antiques
to kids’ toys, to crystal and fine Thai silk, the brightly decorated
ballroom began to fill with mums and dads, while the kids had their own
space with games and movies on hand to entertain them.
The highlight of the day was the fantastic raffle draw
with a multitude of prizes on offer, including air tickets to Australia,
Chiang Mai, and Krabi (see results listed on this page).
The PILC Bazaar is one of the major events held in the
region to raise funds for numerous charities. This year’s event raised
funds for, amongst other things, a dental program for the Redemptorist
Street Kids home. There were also many other beneficiaries (see sidebar),
making this one of the most successful fund raising event on the PILC
calendar.
(Above)
A veritable shopping paradise for those looking for many unique items as
well as taking the opportunity to get in some early Christmas shopping.
And with everything on sale, from antiques to zippers, and all
under one roof, this truly was the shopping place to be.
PILC
Charity Projects
Redemptorist Street Kids Home:
November 2003, all the young people (122) were taken shopping to purchase
a new set of clothing, followed by a party where everyone wore their new
duds.
Staff training in first aid and
essentials in personal hygiene for the young people at the home. Personal
hygiene and sex education program for the young people at the home (4
workshops). The beginning of a dental care program for the children living
at the home.
Vocational Training School for the
Handicapped: From the proceeds of the Pattaya Guidebook written and
published by PILC, 250,000 baht went towards the education program of the
students.
Pattaya Orphanage: Personal
volunteering of members to the Wednesday playgroup.
Eastern Child Welfare Protection
Institution (Huay Pong): Staff training in first aid and essentials in
personal hygiene for the young people at the home. Personal Hygiene and
sex education program for the young people at the home (7 health
workshops). Together with RLC, installation of gutters at the boys’
dormitory. Together with Jesters, Pattaya Sports Club and RLC, renovation
to upgrade a boys’ dormitory and teaching the boys how to care for the
buildings.
Protection and Observation Centre for
Young People (Rayong): Continuation of the Bakery Project, selling
products made by the girls in the vocational training kitchen. Personal
hygiene and sex education program for the young people at the home (10
health workshops).
Fountain of Life Centre 2:
Volunteers donate time to work for the gift card program. Together with
the Jesters, support for the annual Christmas party for the children, and
donation of gifts for the families. Financial support for the spring roll
cooking program.
Chiang Rai Centre: Jackets for
the girls.
Mercy Ministries Foundation:
Scholarships for 15 children. Rice and other essentials for the people
living in Pattaya slums.
Our Home: Donation of bedroom
furniture for the dormitory.
Garunawyet (Home for disabled
ladies): Party with the ladies and special luncheon. Volunteers donate
time to work on Fridays with the elderly ladies.
Camillian Centre: Donation of
funds towards HIV medicine for the children.
Schools: Support for 32 schools
in the outlying areas of Pattaya for their libraries, with the donation of
sets of encyclopaedias of their choice. Social Skills Enhancement Camp for
80 children for Pattaya Schools. 30 scholarships for the YWCA junior
scholarship program.
North Star Library: Donation of
children’s books.
A ‘vendor’s eye view’ of the PILC Holiday Bazaar
A long day on your feet
Dr. Iain
No doubt there will be a more full report of the very
successful Pattaya International Ladies Club Holiday Bazaar (whew that’s
a mouthful) in the Pattaya Mail, but this is a little different, being a
‘vendor’s eye view’ of the Saturday in the Royal Cliff Beach
Resort’s Siam ballroom.
As my wife Som was running a table with her Chiang Mai
orchid jewelry, bazaar organizer, the tireless Arlette Cykman, suggested
that Som should have someone with her, to allow absenteeism for comfort
stops and the like. So at least I knew my place – the Rest Room
Substitute!
The evening before was spent in cataloguing the stock
to be taken, and an early alarm was needed on the Saturday morning, as
vendors had to be at the ballroom by 8 a.m. On the way to the venue, we
realized we did not have any change, so two successive 7-Elevens were hit
for small purchases and 1000 baht notes offered, with muttered (insincere)
apologies!
You could tell the ‘professional’ vendors
immediately. Their own trolleys, racks, big striped bags with their goods.
Then there were people like us, with cardboard boxes precariously balanced
as we unloaded and took everything into the ballroom.
Professional vendors also knew how much to charge for
their goods. Novices like us left the price list at home and the Rest Room
Substitute had to make another quick trip home!
By the time I returned, the PEACH car park was the only
place available for parking, but this was swiftly done with much whistle
blowing and I abandoned the car, not looking forward to the sprint to the
ballroom. However, I had forgotten just how efficiently everything runs at
the Royal Cliff, and there was the fleet of shuttle busses to deposit me
right to the door. (Thank you Khun Panga Vathanakul!)
Since my wife was not in immediate or pressing need of
a comfort stop right then, I was able to walk around and chat to some of
the other vendors, complete with the Pattaya Mail Plus TV cameras.
The range was amazing, and the enthusiasm infectious, especially when
talking to someone like PILC president Sharon Tibbets (and I hope you did
manage to sell all those Xmas crackers, ladies).
I was most impressed with the Rayong group’s bakery
stall, the results of teaching some young girls who might have ‘lost
their way’ a little, a worthwhile craft that will stand them in good
stead later in life. Well done, ladies.
The Belgian chocolate man’s stand looked very
tempting, and I went back a couple of times, but just missed Hillary they
told me. Fortunately there was no champagne stand, or it could have been
embarrassing for the Pattaya Mail!
I was very taken with Vivienne’s stall with the
polished and hand beaten stainless steel platters, and the correct cheese
knife. Unfortunately, by the time I got back to buy it, someone else had
taken a fancy to it and it was gone. “Wait till next year,” said
Vivienne!
There seemed to be a steady flow of customers all day,
but somehow the “pros” all knew when to pack up, leaving the tyros
still trying to find their cardboard boxes, but we all made it. I did
check later and there was nobody left looking for that last sale.
A mammoth task in organizing, and I congratulate Arlette and all the
PILC team for a great job in keeping all us unruly vendors under control!
Lucky draw winners
Bruno’s 8th anniversary celebration
Fredi and friends remember Alois Fassbind and Bruno Forrer
Miss Terry Diner
Bruno’s Restaurant in the Chateau Dale complex was
the meeting place for the majority of Pattaya’s food connoisseurs last
weekend. Or more correctly put, for the Pattaya gourmets who had managed
to secure a reservation for an event that was booked out almost from the
minute the date was decided upon.
 That
it should be a sell-out should have come as no surprise. Bruno’s
Restaurant had been the ‘Gold Standard’ in Pattaya fine dining for
many years, under the watchful eye of that fine gentleman Bruno Forrer.
With his passing last year, Pattaya lost one of its
favorite sons, but Fredi Schaub, the ‘heir apparent’ did not let
Bruno, or his memory, down, maintaining the fine dining restaurant, and
then taking it to the next upward step with larger and more select
premises in Chateau Dale.
 It
had become a tradition over the past few years for Bruno to celebrate the
opening of the restaurant, which he had done with his dear friend Alois
Fassbind eight years ago. As a frivolous concept, the cost of the meal was
tied into the year of the anniversary, so the sixth was charged out at 666
baht, the seventh at 777 baht, and the latest, the eighth, being naturally
888 baht. This was something that Bruno did to thank his patrons (who
naturally became his friends), by offering a superb set meal at a fraction
of its ‘real’ cost. A thank you that Fredi Schaub has made a
tradition.
As a feast, it was a splendid repast. Beginning with
crabmeat and shrimp salad on a ragout of avocado, served with apple
julienne, tomato and Balsamico sauce, how could it fail? By the time the
diners were through the wonderful curry-scented chicken cream soup with
fried ginger and chilli, everyone was reminiscing about the previous
anniversary celebration dinners, with the anecdotes regarding Bruno
Forrer’s dry wit being as copious as the food that kept on appearing.
For me, whilst the NZ beef tenderloin, topped with cheddar cheese was
wonderfully tender and flavorsome, the dish of the evening was a very
special blend of flavors in the pasta timabale with a ragout of duck,
sun-dried tomatoes and black Taggia olives.
As was befitting the occasion, Pattaya historian and MD
of the Pattaya Mail, Peter Malhotra, said a few words, to remind
all present of the history behind Bruno’s Restaurant, and the people who
were to shape its destiny - the late Alois Fassbind, the late Bruno Forrer
and the (very much alive) Fredi Schaub. Glasses were raised to their
memory and a further glass to the future of Bruno’s Restaurant, now in
the very capable hands of Fredi Schaub, a man that Peter whimsically
called the ‘adopted son’ of Fassbind and Forrer!
As the guests began to make their way homewards, the talk moved on from
the recollections of the past, to the celebration of the day and then to
the anticipations of what Fredi and the entire team at Bruno’s
Restaurant, will produce for the 999 baht 9th anniversary celebration! (I
have made my reservation already!)
Shrimp doctor says fast diagnosis is key to keeping fishy friends alive
B. Phillip Webb Jr.
Kalasin - Ask any shrimp farmer in Kalasin or the
surrounding areas who Nonti Junda is, and they will tell you she is known
locally as the “shrimp doctor”.
Junda, 27, was born in a small village on the outskirts
of Kalasin where her family raised seafood, so after finishing secondary
school she decided to study marine biology.
 Nonti
Junda prepares shrimp for diagnosis at a nearby shrimp farm.
She thought a nearby province, with its long coastline,
had the potential to develop its aqua-culture economy, which is why she
returned home rather than staying at the university to pursue a career in
teaching.
Her graduation thesis was “How to Prevent and Cure
the Diseases of Catfish”. But, when she returned to Kalasin and heard
about the outbreak of diseases in shrimp in a nearby province, she decided
that was a more urgent problem.
 Hauling
in a few shrimp to be used in testing.
Junda, was immediately given the job of trying to
improve the testing method which identified common shrimp diseases in the
area.
This was not a simple topic, and until Junda addressed
the problem, no one had tried to tackle it. Diagnosing (these types) of
diseases was only being carried out in a few places, such as the Institute
for Growing Aquatic Products up in Chiang Mai.
A number of methods were already in use to diagnose the
diseases but they were too costly for the average farmer and took a long
time, with a 12-36 hour wait for results.
Junda knew shrimp disease diagnosis needed to be fast,
otherwise whole areas would be wiped out in a flash, and it needed to be
affordable for farmers.
For these reasons, Junda concentrated on trying to
improve testing methods by speeding up diagnostic times and simplifying
the identification of diseases to prevent further spreading.
Junda spent many sleepless nights trying to perfect
this procedure and in the daytime she visited shrimp breeding areas to
select satisfactory shrimp samples.
Cutting shrimp membranes usually requires precision and
precise machinery, but Junda had to do it all by hand.
At first, her limited experience meant Junda failed to
come up with methods to pinpoint the common diseases.
But after trial and error, Junda built up the necessary
skills to become known as the shrimp doctor who could give the fastest
diagnosis of shrimp disease, clocking in at 15-20 minutes.
Junda said her thesis was not outstanding from a
theoretical viewpoint, but it’s of great value to this province and
Kalasin breeders.
“When I give an accurate diagnosis to the farmers,
and help them raise a bumper crop, my joy is boundless. I want to do
better because shrimp breeding has helped this province and my home town
of Kalasin escape hunger and poverty,” Junda said.
Her diagnostic methods are currently being applied in
several provinces as well as at the Chang Mai Fishing Encouragement
Center.
Local farmers are reveling in the new method, as the
cost of testing has dropped from several thousand baht to almost nothing.
Many farmers have attended the center to learn more
from Junda about shrimp diseases, and most have spread the word throughout
the region.
Junda’s efforts were recognized recently by the General Federation of
Labor, which awarded her the prize for Women Creative Talents.
Marriott Resort & Spa organizes special “Turtle Care Initiative Trip”
Hotel Environment Action Month
Suchada Tupchai
The Marriott Resort & Spa, led by John Hogg,
president of Environment Conscious Hospitality Operations (ECHO),
organized a trip to visit the Royal Thai Navy Sea Turtle Conservation
Center in Sattahip. This was the Hotel Environment Action Month (HEAM)
plan for September, which was also designated “Clean up the World”
month.
Hotel
guests, family and friends release young turtles into the sea.
Receiving a warm welcome from navy officers, attendees
viewed a multimedia slide show of the center’s activities covering the
main subjects of sources and remaining quantities of sea turtles. Then
guests visited the incubating ponds.
 John
Hogg and hotel guests feed the sea turtles.
Officers at the center said they cultivate 2 types of
baby sea turtles; the lays turtle and the hawksbill turtle. Right now they
have about 4,000 turtles, which they will release in the ocean when they
are 3 months old, many of which, when in their natural habitat, should
live for about 15 years.
 The
hawksbill turtle population is decreasing.
The Sea Turtle Conservation Center, situated on the beach at Aircraft
Headquarters and the Navy Coast Guard Department, was started in 1950. The
process involves caring for baby turtles until they are old enough to
release into the sea. The project is also visited by youngsters who are
interested in studying marine biology and conservation.
Redemptorist Disabled Employment Center celebrates 5th anniversary
Recognizes support it’s received from the public
Suchada Tupchai
The Redemptorist Disabled Employment Center recognized
the support of private enterprise during its 5th anniversary celebrations.
Father Banchong Chaiyara, Redemptorist Foundation director presented
certificates to 14 organizations and 6 former vocational college students
for their outstanding work and support of the region’s disabled
community, especially companies that opened their doors by giving them
employment.
This
year’s outstanding employees and their benefactors gather for a group
picture.
“Today is our fifth year of operations and we
celebrate the achievements and support of those who have helped the
disabled community. Over the past 5 years we have helped 1,136 disabled
people find work in various careers. A further 1,031 have gone on to
further their studies and another 110 now work for themselves; that’s
2,277 people who have benefited from the scheme,” said Father Banchong.
He also revealed that a great deal of financial support by means of a UK
Community Fund was due to run out this year.
The
discussion panel on ‘The private sector’s roll in society’ (l-r)
Chanyuth Hengtrakul, Thongchai Wittayanukorn, Khun Suporntum Mongkolsawadi,
Principal of the Redemptorist Vocational School for the disabled and Khun
Wisa Benjamano, Inspector of the Ministry of Human Stability and Services.
The activities continued with a special show from the
wheelchair dancers and numerous other exhibits of work and a video
presentation on the work carried out by the center.
Figures from the Social Development and Human Services
ministry reveal 8.1 percent of the population is in someway disabled
(approx. 5 million). Of these, just 2 percent are employable. The
remaining numbers are supported by their family and society in general.
Somchai
Khunplome (left), mayor of Saensuk Municipality presents a plaque of
appreciation to Rewat Ponlukin, Chonburi provincial administration
organization deputy chairman.
Santsak
Ngamphiches (left) presents a plaque to Thongchai Wittayanukorn, HR
Manager of Union Footwear Plc for his role in supporting the physically
handicapped.
Father
Banchong Chaiyara (left) thanks Chanyuth Hengtrakul, advisor to the
Minister of Tourism and Sports for sitting on the panel of discussion.
Thammanoon
Kaewglar (right) is recognised as an outstanding employee of the Union
Footwear Plc by Chanyuth Hengtrakul.
Pratheep
Malhotra MD of Pattaya Mail joined in the discussions, giving his views on
ways to help.
Father
Banchong Chaiyara spoke on the center’s work.
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