Who are our partners for this year's Jesters Charity Drive?

To have continuity of Partners is a great asset and, once again, this year’s Jesters ‘Care for Kids’ Charity Drive has the invaluable support of Pattaya Mail and Shenanigans, both Platinum Sponsors.

Brendan Richards and Dr. Iain Corness, for Pattaya Mail, provide the opportunity for regular coverage of the Charity Drive’s evolving plans and key features of the Childrens Fair and Pub Night through the weekly issues of Pattaya Mail, with linked news feature interviews on the Pattaya Mail cable TV channel. In a recent issue of Pattaya Mail, the media program appropriately kicked-off with an article by Lewis ‘Woody’ Underwoood, Jesters Charity Drive Chairman, ‘Jesters still caring for Kids after 5 Years’, which set the scene for 2002. We also work with the Pattaya Mail Graphic Design staff to produce the advertising and display material to support the Charity Drive.

Shenanigans, fuelled by the boundless energy of landlord Kim Fletcher, provides the venue for the Pub Night on Saturday September 21st, this year enhanced by the excellent new Light and Sound system. That alone should make the event even more spectacular and certainly provide a more glamorous preview of the personalities in the Slave Auction.

Second, but by no means least, is the Charity Bike Ride organized by Kim and more successful year on year. Not short of enthusiasm, Kim has already planned this year’s route. As if that wasn’t enough, Shenanigans is the place to bring your second hand books in due course, so we have plenty to sell at the Childrens Fair.

And so to our third partner, the Diana Group, who this year are providing the Diana Garden Lodge and Driving Range, North Pattaya, as the venue for the Childrens Fair. We are grateful to Executive Director Ms. Sopin Thappajug, John Cole, and the Diana Group Management for providing the space and facilities at the Driving Range to make the Children’s Fair the biggest and best yet. Current construction work in the area will be well advanced by then and includes the new Diana Garden Resort building adjacent to the Garden Lodge Thai House Garden. The Diana Group thus completes the partnership trio for 2002.

To learn more about Pattaya Mail, Shenanigans, or the Diana Group, click on their logos to visit their sites.

Which charities will benefit from our efforts this year?

The Fountain of Life Children’s Center, of course, will take precedence again and remain our target charity. The windfall the Sisters of the Good Shepherd Foundation recently received, when the Oak Foundation, Japanese Government, et al. provided the funding for their new premises off the Pattaya 3 Road (grand opening article, pictures, new location map), really does not change the main objective of our Charity Drive. We have always helped with the operational expenses of the Children’s Center and will continue to do so. At present, the proceeds from our labors covers about 50% of their annual running costs, as well as funding scholarships for kids to continue their education in the local government schools.

Nevertheless, this year we have chosen to allocate some of the monies raised to other worthwhile charities that benefit disadvantaged children in the region. The Pattaya Redemptorist School for the Blind became one of our beneficiaries this year. This school, started in 1986 by Father Ray Brennan and Mrs. Aurora Lee Sribuapun, provides housing, schooling, and vocational training for blind children as well as the mentally impaired. The school, presently located on Soi 16 in Naklua, provides for 157 schoolchildren between first year kindergarten and ninth grade.

Most recently the first event of this year’s Jesters ‘Care for Kids’ Charity Drive, a sponsored pushbike ride from Ubon to Pattaya, named ‘Paul Baker’s Farewell Tour’, raised in excess of 200,000 Baht for the Blind School. This money has been used for the purchase of tables, chairs, lockers, awnings, and a new roof for the gymnasium.

The third main beneficiary is the Eastern Child Welfare Protection Institute in Huay Pong, Rayong Province. This institution houses approximately 300 children between the ages of 3 and 17 years, most of who are either orphaned or abandoned from poor families, who cannot afford to raise them. Besides housing and education the children receive vocational training. Our project is to renovate one of the pre-existing wooden living quarters and construct proper toilet and bathing facilities, behind this structure, for the younger boys residing at the Institute. We have presently earmarked 350,000 to 400,000 Baht for this purpose.

If you would like to help us provide funding for our three beneficiaries mentioned above, or if you have any questions, please feel free to email us at: JCD2002@care4kids.info