The 6th Annual Jesters Care for Kids Charity Drive is heading full-steam ahead towards September. The venues are already in place from last year for our Children’s Fair and Pub Night, our second corporate sponsorship letter has been sent out, and we have 9 (yes, 9!) Platinum Sponsors on board midstream. And it’s a good thing, for not only do we keep raising the bar for ourselves each successive year (3.3 million baht last year), but we also keep looking to expand our range of projects and beneficiaries.

Other good news is that our Pledge Program (Pledge for Kids) of 12-monthly donations or a once only ‘Samaritan’ one, has paid into our Charity Drive coffers over 630, 000 of the 900,000 baht pledged so far since its inception in June last year, getting ever closer to our initial million baht target. (www.care4kids.info/pledge/index.htm).   This year the Jesters Children Fair will be held once again on the grounds of the spacious Diana Garden Resort and Driving Range on Sunday, September 14th, while the Jester’s Pub Night, will take place at Shenanigan’s on the following Saturday, September, 20th.   Our Platinum Sponsors to date include:

1. Baltex Industries
2. Foster Wheeler
3. Kvaerner E & C (Thailand)
4. MBMG International
5. Nirvana Resort (Koh Chang)
6. Pattaya Mail
7. Sailor Inn
8. Shenanigans
9. South East Asia Control and Automation Systems (SEA-CAS)

This year we decided to print two versions of our popular ‘Care for Kids’ shirt with the first one due out imminently. The early edition will be used as a tool for publicizing our Charity Drive starting now, and to increase the exposure of our Platinum Sponsors. In fact, the central design on the back of the shirt has been downsized this year to not only accommodate the increased number of Platinum Sponsors, but also to showcase their logos larger. Below the featured Platinum Sponsor logos on the shirt, we have left a space labeled ‘Your Company logo here’ aimed at attracting additional sponsors. The second edition, or final printing of our shirt, will be in August when, hopefully, we have been joined by even more Platinum Sponsors. Our beneficiaries this year will be:

• The Eastern Child Welfare Protection Institute in Huay Pong,
where we will renovate one of the two school buildings starting in mid-June.
• The Fountain of Life Center in North Pattaya,
where we recently provided 54 scholarships and documentation for children to enter Government
schools.
• The Pattaya School for the Blind,
where we recently provided pumps and necessary plumbing to get water to the upper floors.

We are also looking at other areas and organizations in need, such as the Pala Beach playground in Banchang, and the Happiness Camp (Mathura Human Society).

This year’s veteran organizing committee (www.care4kids.info/contacts.htm) looks like this:

• Graham Macdonald -Corporate sponsorship and airline prizes
• Kevin Mitch - Fair site coordinator, including layout and logistics
• Jon Wilson - Fair site assistant supervisor, particularly stage
• Kim Fletcher - Sponsored Bike Ride and Pub Night
• Mike Franklin - PR, advertising and Children’s Raffle
• Brendan Richards - Posters, fair programs, raffle tickets, liaison with Pattaya Mail
• Diane Connelly - Liaison with FOL, grand raffle prizes/auction items collector
• Karyn Walker - Liaison with schools
• Linden Phanpo - Liaison with schools
• Helle Rantsen - Assistant Secretary, liaison with RLC
• David Smith (PMCI) - Pledge for Kids
• Susie Ngamsuwan - Web Site
• Neil Sandilands - Secretary, organizing donated beer
• Bill Freeman -Treasurer
• Jeff Paladeau - Ad Hoc Director
• Lewis Underwood - Chairman, overall coordination and liaison

We are pleased to report that our sponsors and their links are too
numerous to list here at this time. For a complete directory of their
websites, please visit www.care4kids.info/links.htm.