The Riviera Group’s Winston and Sukanya Gale invited their employees and contractors to put aside business for a day to compete in tug-of-war, takraw, volleyball, football and more games as the real estate developer hosted its second-annual Sports Day.
Project Development Manager Sukanya Gale opened the Aug. 20 event at Pattaya School No. 7, which was dedicated to employees who had fallen ill or suffered accidents over the past year. The day raised 250,000 baht to be donated to help two employees deal with 1.8 million baht in medical bills.
Sukanya and her husband, Managing Director Winston Gale, led two employee teams who battled 16 supplier and partner squads. Events included women’s volleyball, a 100-meter dash, 4×100-meter relay, hands-free eating, tug-of-war, sack races, eggplant rolling, takraw, three-legged racing, sack racing and football.
The employee Pink team took on the Pan team in the football match, which the pink squad won for a 10,000-baht first prize. The runner-up team received 5,000 baht.
Other supplier team wins included the eggplant race, 100-meter dash for both men and women, the relay, tug-of-war and three-legged race. Employee teams won the other events, including the cheerleading competition.
Other contractors who took part included PN Furniture, Firstcan Services, JWS, Thyssenkrupp, TT&TT Engineering, Texca Wall Siamese Ecolite, Ideal Design, WSP, and Mungkorn.
After all the action, the 500 people participating enjoyed food, drinks and a live band. There also was a surprise birthday party for Winston who turned 47, which included a cake shaped like the Riviera Wongamart and with Winston’s photo.
The festive event did have a serious side, however, as the stories of two employees were told, one of whom was hurt badly in a car accident and the other battling leukemia. Riviera executives said the day’s event raised only a small fraction of their medical bills, but the company will meet later to discuss more aid for their fallen workers.
