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Asian University Engineering Students’ Robot Camp
Susan Joyce
Earlier this month, forty boys from Assumption College, Bangrak,
came to Asian University for a Robot Camp.
 Winners
Beamy and Blooming.
Most of the boys are members of the Robot Club at their college and some
have represented Assumption at international competitions in Thailand and
overseas.
The boys, aged from 11 to 17, divided into teams to make and program their
robots to play “football”. Goalkeepers or defenders were made by the
organizers, and were all programmed in the same way.
The five day camp included plenty of fun activities as well as the serious
business of making the robots. Tuition was by Asian University engineering
students and some of their friends who had all been members of the Robot
Club at Assumption College.
The robots are made using a set of components from Lego, which allows plenty
of opportunity for inventive designs, and the program used is Robolab, again
allowing students to design the robots to react in different ways.
At the trial competition, the team of Asian University student organizers
(including Muay, and other non engineering students) won. The real knock-out
final was won by Blooming from the College at Asian University and his
brother Beamy.
Congratulations to all concerned: the Asian University students for
organizing, and the youngsters for taking part.
The game is on!
Students with young
competitors at Robot Camp.
Robots waiting for their turn
at the games.
Students study the
programming.
Tesco Lotus donates three trolleys to the Father Ray Foundation
Lyndy Moore
Father Ray Foundation Development Director Mike Lancaster was
obviously delighted to receive three trolleys from Tesco Lotus in
Pattaya. The trolleys were delivered by Tesco Lotus executives Pattachaj
Apichattrisorn and Maythaporn Saipetch and will be used to transport
donated goods from the Father Ray Foundation Welcome Center in Sukhumvit
Road to on-site projects within the Foundation.
 Mike
partners the trolley in a dance of joy under the watchful eye of British
Ambassador HE Quintin Quayle (photo on the wall).
Mike Lancaster thanked Tesco Lotus for easing the load of the services
staff and said he hoped that the trolleys are always full of gifts and
goods continued to be donated to the Father Ray Foundation which cares
for 850 abused, abandoned and isolated children and disabled young
adults.
Meanwhile, Mike made the most of the empty Tesco Lotus gift, by
partnering it in a dance of joy, under the watchful eye of 850 Father
Ray family members and the British Ambassador to the Kingdom of
Thailand, who’s picture is hanging on the wall at the Father Ray
Foundation Welcome Center.
 At
the Father Ray Foundation, “We never turn a needy child away”.
Eight projects at the Father Ray Foundation are: the Day Care Center for
kindergarten age children; Fr. Ray Children’s Village where funding is
required to furnish six new houses currently under construction; the
Vocational School for young disabled adults; the Independent Living
Center for the Disabled; Job Placement Center for the Disabled; Fr. Ray
Children’s Home; the School for the Blind; and also under construction,
Vocational School for the Blind; and the Fr. Ray Outreach Work and
Drop-In Center.
The Father Ray Foundation mission statement is, “We never turn a needy
child away” and with day-to-day expenses becoming more and more costly
as the economy dips we are asking our readers to please keep the Tesco
Lotus trolleys filled-up with donated gifts.
Father Ray Foundation asks please for toys, non perishable food stuffs,
children’s clothes and fully operational equipment are particularly
welcome at this time. Every little bit helps a little one! You are
welcome to bring goods, cash and cheques to Fr. Ray Foundation 440 Moo 9
Km. 145 Sukhumvit Road, Nongprue, Banglamung, Chonburi. And you can make
a donation online at www.fr-ray.org
For further information - tel: 038-716-628 x 2073 or email:
[email protected]
Regent’s School Pattaya to host Round Square International Conference 2010
 Paul
Crouch
The countdown has begun and there are now less then 365 days
until The Regent’s hosts the Round Square International Conference for
the first time ever in Thailand.
The eight students from the conference steering committee have just
returned from the 2009 conference at Mayo College in Ajmer, India, and
presented their theme and ideas for 2010 with passion and great style.
The whole school and we hope the Pattaya community is excited to be
welcoming the Round Square community to our home in October 2010 and to
showcase the wonderful Thai culture and diverse people that we live and
work with on a daily basis.
We would like to welcome our own community to visit the conference
website at: www.rs-wewalktogether.org and to especially view the student
presentation posted on the homepage that gives a real sense of our
theme: We Walk Together.
There will be a full report of the committee’s experience in India soon
plus many more interesting news and updates about the conference.
For more information about the RS 2010 conference at The Regent’s School
or if you would like to be a community partner or sponsor for this event
please contact:
[email protected]
Round Square 2010 student
steering committee poses
with the Doon School students in front of the Taj Mahal.
Wrapping up Jesters Care for Kids 2009
Written by Lewis Underwood
Photos by Peter Kraemer
It has been said that in lean times, people tend to scale back on
‘extras’, like charitable donations. That is understandable; after all
when money is tight, taking care of our families and ourselves does take
precedence. Consequently, we expected raising money for underprivileged
Thai children this past year to be a tough go. Though it looked that way
during the first half of the year, midsummer to September saw an
unexpected outpouring of generosity from your side.
 Girls
dancing on stage at the Children’s Fair.
In fact, you helped us raise a whopping 7.1 plus million baht this past
year, which is exceptional for any year! We are particularly delighted
with this result because in hard times the poor take a much bigger hit
than we do. Therefore, we would like to thank you for digging deep this
year and continuing your aid for Jesters Care for Kids projects.
We would particularly like to thank once again our Diamond Sponsors, or
400,000 baht donors, Glencore International, Canadian Jackalope Open and
the Herrod Foundation, as well as our 20 Platinum Sponsors (100,000 baht
donors). Of the 7.1 million baht plus raised this year, 5,783,988 baht
has come from corporate and individual sponsorship. That total alone is
truly remarkable and again, we thank you for making room in your budgets
to still be charitable.
 Boys
dancing on stage at the Children’s Fair.
The rest of the funds raised came from the proceeds of our annual
September events. The Jesters Children’s Fair raised money from gate
charges, stall rentals, stallholder donations, PSC Children’s Raffle
ticket sales, event shirt sales and donated beer collection and sales.
In fact, money raised from the latter at both Jesters’ beer tents, and
at Pop’s Cool Zone on its own covered the entire fair set up and
operating expenses, as well as putting us into the black. In all, not
including advertising in our Fair Souvenir Programs, which comes under
our PR category, our net for the Fair was just over 330,000 baht.
From our second event, Jesters Party Night held at Jameson’s Irish Pub,
nearly 850,000 was raised through the sales of grand raffle ticket books
and the vigorous bidding on auction items.
Still more funds were raised by Erik and Robert, our two intrepid
Scandinavian push bike enthusiasts, who gathered 503,240 baht in
sponsorship this year by riding from Trat to Pattaya (nearly 300 km) in
a single day. Their collected donations have been included in the
corporate and individual sponsorship total above.
And most recently to cap off our Jesters Care for Kids 2009, the ladyboy
volleyball team from the So What Bar on Soi 6 donated their first prize
winnings of 65,000 baht to our charity drive in a competition on Jomtien
Beach held earlier in October.
In all, our exact total of donations in both cash and kind is 7,109,163
baht, which also includes monies yet to be collected. Again we thank you
for this wonderful result!
In the meantime, we have been busying ourselves with the distribution of
funds to our main beneficiaries, such as the Fountain of Life Center,
Pattaya Redemptorist School for the Blind, Ban Jing Jai and the
Camillian Social Center for HIV/AIDS children.
We have also initiated some new projects, such as the construction of
additional toilets and a new kitchen for the canteen at Noenkraprog
School in Ban Chang. We are also poised to start building a disabled
home for kids at Khao Bai Sri in Sattahip with funds provided this year
by the Herrod Foundation, Mike Koerner, Club Nevada and Lolita’s
Pattaya.
For more information about the wrap up of our charity drive this year
and to see where your donations are going, please visit our website:
www.care4kids.info.
By the way, donations for Jesters Care for Kids 2010 are already coming
in. You gotta love it!
Bouncing castle at the
Children’s Fair.
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