But first a little history
On the eve of the launch of the 2019/2020 Pattaya 24/7 Orphans Appeal, a quick recap of what we do, how we do it and why we do it. Be in no doubt, this is what separates us from ‘the rest”.
In 2017, our first year as a much smaller group, we raised a very decent 68,000 baht through selling a few shirts and running a Just Giving campaign. It was a valiant effort originally started for an unfortunate bar girl who was very badly burned by her then partner. We wanted to help her get cosmetic surgery.
In typical Thai style, said lady returned to the jungle along with said ex-partner, so we gave it all instead to the Pattaya Orphanage. We bought essential items and delivered them one afternoon along with a small children’s party.
In 2018, we really got into our groove, raising over 460,000B, again with a Just Giving campaign and selling tee shirts locally in 2 restaurants.
The group, now much larger, really embraced the appeal with 3 members alone donating 14,000B, 23,000B and probably the most expensive t-shirt ever sold in Pattaya, a whopping 44,000B! We donated 30,000B to the excellent Hand in Hand Foundation funding eye glasses for school children, another 100,000B for the Pattaya Orphanage and our biggest achievement yet, building a new dormitory, allowing us to rescue 12 young homeless girls from the streets and give them a place of safety and love, along with installing new showers and a huge games enclosure, at the massively underfunded Baan Kru Ja Orphanage. This remains the best 330,000B we have spent to date. And we threw 2 fantastic parties for the kids too.
The total amount raised to date for the Pattaya 24/7 Appeal is now 1.1 million baht, but this year there is not as much money around as last year, and the exchange rate is worse, so we will really have to go some to break last year’s record. But we will endeavor to raise as much money as we can regardless. Thanks to Scooter’s kind sponsorship of every shirt, and a new worldwide mail order set up, we will give it our best shot. As someone pointed out, we only need to sell 250 shirts at last year’s average donation of 2000B to achieve our goal.
But most will think “leave it to someone else” to help. Over 99% of you will unfortunately do just that. Don’t be that guy – please, please don’t be him.
That guy never did anything good in his life and has no idea that a man’s wealth is judged not by what he has, but by what he is prepared to give away to those far less fortunate.
Our fantastic new 2019/2020 Appeals shirt has been in Scooters Bars since the start of the 2019/2020 charity drive started, and due to popular demand we have had to refill the order for the third time, and worldwide mail order has been ongoing due to the kindness of the Scooter’s management. Let’s build as many new dormitories as possible, and change as many young, stressed, innocent lives as we can.
