Saturday, January 16 saw the 6th annual ‘One Day, One Goal’ charity football event – hosted by United Football – take place at St. Andrews International School, Green Valley. The dark grey clouds above looked ominous but thankfully, the downpour never came.
This year funds were raised for The Shelter, Take Care Kids and Fountain of Life charity organisations through a combination of sponsorship, donations and entry fees.
As usual the morning session began with the football tournament and 53 teams from 8 schools, comprising of some 400 children, made for a fierce competition and the event’s biggest turnout ever.
One of the successful St. Andrews football teams celebrate with their trophy and medals/
Children as young as 5 through to 13 showcased their enthusiasm, ability and skill, all in the aid of a good cause and every baht raised from their entry fees went to help one of the 3 charities.
The standard was extremely high and the home team St. Andrews once again proved to be a force to be reckoned with as they won 4 out of a possible 8 trophies available on the day.
The Garden International School (GIS) also tasted success as they won the girls’ Under-9 football category. After the final the team had a chance to meet five of the babies being looked after by a children’s shelter in Pattaya – one of the beneficiaries of the event. The girls were shown how to hold the babies carefully and enjoyed cuddling them and singing to them.
Garden International School won the girls’ under-9 football tournament.
In the afternoon as the tournament came to a close, the focus shifted to the children from the charity groups. They were treated to an afternoon of football coaching, basketball coaching, swimming lessons and play time on the bouncy castle. The children were also given gifts courtesy of Hanky Panky Games and hats courtesy of United Football.
The St. Andrews Parent Teacher Group (PTG) kept everybody fed and hydrated throughout the day, no mean feat, and several other stalls were in attendance including The Marriott Rayong and The Pattaya Rayong Ladies Circle.
The organizers wish to thank the event sponsors: COGNITA Education, United Football, the Marriot Rayong, St. Andrews Parent Teacher Group, Rayong Pattaya Ladies Circle, Auto Alliance Thailand, Bangkok Hospital Pattaya, Hanky Panky Games, St. Andrews CAS Crew.
The young footballers enjoyed cuddling five babies from a shelter in Pattaya and singing to them.
A big thank you also goes to Matthew Dunn who spends the entire year bringing One Day, One Goal together and raises hundreds of thousands of baht for charity.
At the time of writing the total money raised and donated to the charities is well in excess of 150,000 THB making it another record breaking year.
