The event featured a wonderful
Santa’s Grotto.
The Pattaya International Ladies Club (PILC) held its annual
Christmas Bazaar at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Pattaya on Sunday, November 17. The
Christmas Bazaar, which has become a signal for the opening of the Christmas
shopping season here in Pattaya, featured 60 vendors from all over Thailand,
many of whom do not sell their wares in mainstream shops, thus giving attendees
a chance to find items that are not available elsewhere. Over 500 visitors
attended the event over the course of the day.
“This year’s Bazaar, our 21st, was a huge success,” said PILC President Helle
Rantsen. “The vendors were very happy with the turnout and attendees were
delighted with the selection of products on sale. This was the first time we
held the event at the Holiday Inn, and they pulled out all the stops to help us
make our Bazaar memorable.” All funds raised at the Bazaar, after expenses, go
to support numerous charities that PILC supports in the Pattaya area.
Santa Claus helps PILC President
Helle Rantsen cut the ribbon to officially launch this year’s Bazaar.
A special guest this year was Santa Claus, who, along with
Helle, opened the Bazaar at 10am. Santa, played to perfection by William Francis
from Bangkok, sang some Christmas songs, and welcomed dozens of excited
children.
This year, the Club added an activities component to the Bazaar to entertain
those people who wanted a break from shopping. A children’s activity area
provided a face painting station hosted by Margaret Grainger from Hand to Hand
and a wonderful Santa’s Grotto, complete with a post box where children could
post their Christmas toy wish lists and tell Santa what they wanted. The
Fountain of Life Women’s Center had a foot and shoulder massage area and were
kept busy all day with weary shoppers getting a little relief.
In addition to the commercial vendors, the Bazaar also hosted eight local and
regional charities who were able to sell various products, many of which were
made by the people whom they support.
The PILC Special Events Chairperson, Anja Schoof-Hertroys, was very pleased with
the corporate sponsorship the Bazaar received this year. “This event would not
be successful without the sponsorship of our wonderful corporate supporters, and
I would just like to take the opportunity to thank Asian Tigers Transpo,
Bumrungrad Hospital, Dow Chemical, Foster Wheeler and Holiday Inn Hotel, for
their generosity again this year,” she said. “And of course, there are many
businesses, hotels and shops in Pattaya who have given generously to the Bazaar
Raffle, which raises even more money for our welfare work. There are really so
many to thank. We certainly couldn’t have done it without them and their
support!”
Many people were not able to stay for all of the raffle number draws, but you
can find all of the raffle winners on the PILC website at www.pilc-pattaya.com.
If you find you have won a prize, please email infopilc @gmail.com for details
on how to collect your prize. All prizes must be collected by December 15, 2013.
Santa’s Grotto was complete with a
post box where children could post their Christmas toy wish lists and tell Santa
what they wanted.
The Fountain of Life Women’s
Center’s foot and shoulder massage area was kept busy with weary shoppers
getting a little relief.
Bargains galore.
Some of the items are not sold in
regular outlets.
Santa makes his grand entrance.
