The Sanuk Day Care Centre, located on Jomtien 2nd Road, 250 meters past Bali Breeze Restaurant, is to become a safe place for approx 75 children of parents working in the construction industry. This project was undertaken in the style of an extreme make over: a detached house buried in an unkempt estate, and requiring a great deal of refurbishment, was completed in just two weeks.
A house has been rented on what can easily be described as an estate that was being reclaimed by nature. Most importantly it is right in the heart of an area of Jomtien undergoing huge construction. Thus leaving the children of the workers exposed to many dangers. Up until now, temporary shelters have been used, but now a permanent place for day care and nursery will be available.
Benefactors and friends gather to celebrate the Sanuk Day Care Centre’s extreme make over.
Tracy Cosgrove, the power behind the Melissa Cosgrove Children’s Foundation, took what for her was an unusual approach to this project. She is always the driving force behind all of her tasks, but for once she was prepared to hand the keys to Bea Grunwell from the Pattaya International Ladies Club. The agreement being that she would not return until the extreme make over was complete.
Bea, now the project manager, called on friends to chip-in, and they did. A drop of blood, an enormous amount of sweat, and a few tears, along with plenty of elbow grease. Matty Carley, the manager of Hard Rock Cafe loaned his staff to scrape, rub, fill, sandpaper and paint. Kay McKeown was incredible, as she did a lot of the hard work and astonished us all with fantastic artwork. Others that dibbed and dabbed were Eva Johnson, Ingrid Ven der Heyden, Paul Cosgrove, Julie Miller and her daughter Beckie, and Khun ‘Pa’ Janapa Riabroi who will be the manager of Sanuk.
With a thunder shower washing away a finishing coat of yellow paint, the task was still completed on time and on budget, thanks to generosity. A crowd had gathered for the return of a blindfolded Tracy, who was in a state of awe when she saw the transformation and beautiful murals. Determined not to cry, she thanked even the smallest link in the chain who made it all possible.
