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Ripley’s birthday treat for 30 youngsters from Fountain of Life
Children are amazed at the
reality of some of the exhibitions.
Vimolrat Singnikorn
Ripley’s Believe It Or Not provided a free tour to 30 children from the
Fountain of Life Center on June 5 as part of the celebrations surrounding
the anniversary of franchise holder the Minor Group.
 Fountain
of Life children say thanks for the meal.
Somporn Naksuetrong, general manager of Ripley’s, said that June 4 was the
company’s birthday, and that CEO William Heinecke believed that helping
society and making merit was of more importance than receiving gifts on
occasions such as this.
Consequently, 30 children between the ages of three and 15 years of age
arrived from the Fountain of Life Center to experience the many exciting
activities available at Ripley’s, after which they visited another Minor
Group attraction, Burger King, for lunch.
Chaiyo! Thanks for the
birthday present.
The Master’s Voice
Shamayim Watson, Year 10
Photo by Alex Janssens
Head of Music at Garden International, the irrepressible and charismatic
magician Shane O’Shea, has more strings to his harp than you might
think. Not content with conquering the Fobissea (Federation of British
International Schools in South East Asia) music world last November, he
recently took his unbeaten Garden Under-15 soccer team to the Fobissea
games in Bangkok. And wouldn’t you just know it, they went and won it!
When the Irishman’s eyes start glittering like Waterford Crystal,
there’s no point trying to stop him … in fact I had trouble keeping up
with him at all … and this is what he had to say:
 GIS,
the Under 15 Fobissea Football Champions 2007.
“For the last six months and especially over the past few weeks, I’ve
worked really hard with this team, not just on the pitch but on the
whiteboard in the classroom. I knew we had the basis of a damn good
football team. Take Nok for example, our centre forward. I’ve never come
across a Thai player like him, who’s as hard and aggressive. I fully
maintain that at school level, if your team is disciplined - in terms of
possession and set pieces etcetera - then you’ve got a chance against
anybody. I don’t want everybody running about like headless chickens.
We went into the tournament fifteen games played, thirteen wins and two
draws. All we’d been saying was “Must win first game, must win first
game!” But when we got up to Patana, the hosts, we found that the goals
were twice the size that I’d been told. My goalkeeper, ‘Gott’ in Year 7,
at five-foot nothing, is the smallest person on the football field! A
good little keeper to be sure, but I couldn’t put him in these huge
goals. So I had to tell him that he couldn’t play. He’d trained and
trained but he took the decision for the team. The whole plan had been
disrupted but I had full confidence that we had the people in the team
who could deal with everything. I had to move my big centre half into
goal - Petch - and move the dependable Phon to centre half.
Daniel Parjol, our Head of PE and Anna Peak had us all out of our beds
at the Radisson at 5.30am. Another Irishman, “The Gaffer” was in charge
of the first opposition, Uplands from Penang. He was a good lad with a
good team. I told the boys to hit the ball low and hard at his six foot
goalkeeper. We won 1-0 with a goal by Nok. It was a tough game. The next
game was against Jerudong, the team to beat. We were 1-0 up at half time
and had chances to go 2-0 or 3-0 up. But they came back at us to win;
our first defeat all year. Their manager came up to me at the end and
said, “We’ll see you again later in the tournament, I think”. We won our
final group game 7-0; we ploughed through them.
Meanwhile, Regents were powering through the other group. We met them in
the semi-final. All of our people were there, all the Regents people
were there. My boys knew exactly what they had to do. They were totally
focused. It was a comprehensive 3-0 victory.
Stian Jonsgaard was, for me, our best player in the tournament.
Commitment and passion, he was a monster throughout. Jan in centre
midfield is our captain and a great player although sometimes he looks
like he’d rather be out modelling.
As the final approached, the lads were asking themselves, “Can we beat
this team?” Of course we can! I was a bit psychotic, running up and down
the touchline during the game. We played our hearts out. It was an
excellent, fair game. 15 minutes each way, then extra time and
penalties. At the end of normal time, the boys collapsed in a heap,
they’d run themselves into the ground all day. We had hit the crossbar
three times, rapping it once from the half way line. We had deserved to
win in normal time.
And so to penalties; we won the toss and said we’d take the first
penalty, of three. We scored. Then they missed their first! We scored
our second, they scored. Then Nok stepped up, with one kick to win the
tournament… and put it into ‘row Z’! Now this is where it gets all
emotional. He collapsed in a heap, crying hysterically. We all had our
arms around him but there was no consoling him. Jerudong scored their
third and went crazy. So to sudden death. We had to score.
Up stepped little Mark in Year 7, face snow white when I said it was his
penalty. He scored! And you should have seen the smile on his face when
he came back! Just 12 years old, playing in an Under 15 tournament! Now
it’s their turn. Now they had to score. One of their big lads stepped up
and … Petch got a finger to it and tipped it over the bar! Nok’s anguish
turned to utter joy and Jan and Stian starting flooding with tears as
well, balling their eyes out. I’d never experienced anything like this
before and my eyes started filling up as well. I had to go away and
compose myself (well he is a musician).
Six months hard work had built up to this day, the emotional journey had
been long and hard. I’d been telling the assemblies at school for weeks
that this team was going to win Fobissea! But sudden death penalties! It
was everything you could have asked for in a tournament! The boys walked
up the big steps to collect the trophy and they received a massive round
of applause. It is the biggest single sporting achievement in the
school’s history. It’s a massive thing. The boys got what they
deserved.”
And so did Mr. Shane O’Shea.
Nation Group gives
back to the community
Teachers now have extra
teaching equipment thanks to The Nation.
Vimolrat Singnikorn
The Nation Group celebrated its 36th anniversary by giving away
36 scholarships worth 3.6 million baht.
On June 9 at the Royal Garden Plaza, Thanachai Santichaikul, managing
director of the Nation Multimedia Group, and another 12 business
alliances, held activities to celebrate the firm’s 36th anniversary.
From June 9-11 at the Plaza the Nation handed out scholarships to high
school students who had special skills in English, and also donated
books to 36 schools in the Eastern region.
The media group hosted a singing contest on June 10 with a prize of
18,000 baht and certificates for contestants aged between 13-18 years.
Customers can currently buy Nation goods for the special price of 36
baht from bookshops.
To celebrate their 36th
anniversary, The Nation Group donated 36 scholarships worth 3.6 million
baht.
Jesters Care For Kids Charity Drive 2007:
10 ways you can help
Lewis Underwood
Summer is officially here now, which means the planning and organizing
have intensified for our 10th Annual Jesters Care for Kids Charity
Drive. Our signature events, the Jesters Children Fair on Sunday,
September 9th at the Diana Garden Resort and Driving Range and Jesters
Party Night on the following Saturday, September 15th at Jameson’s Irish
Pub are now less than 90 days away!
 Mitchell
Sandbrook (right) receives his certificate of appreciation for his
Bronze Sponsorship from Woody. Mitchell also donated another 1000 baht
to be the first name on the list for the beer donations for the Jesters
Children’s Fair.
Currently we have 1 Diamond Sponsor, 25 Platinums, 13 Golds, 7 Silvers,
29 Bronzes and 13 Pledges on board, which is a fabulous result at this
juncture. Nevertheless we continue to seek more cash sponsors, as well
as other forms of contribution.
There are 10 ways you can help us raise money for the needy kids this
year, ranging from being a Platinum Sponsor (100,000 baht) to just
simply displaying our black promotional stickers on your vehicle.
1. You can join our Corporate and Individual sponsorship program.
This continues to be our biggest source of donations. There are 4
levels:
* Platinum Bt. 100,000
* Gold Bt. 50,000
* Silver Bt. 25,000
* Bronze Bt. 10,000
Please refer to our website for benefits associated with each level or
email us at [email protected] and we will mail you our latest
letter.
2. You can join our Pledge program. An alternative to the above
is to donate an amount between 500 and 2000 baht a month over a 12-month
period. One time donations that do not fit into our corporate and
individual sponsorship program above are also recorded in our pledge
program.
3. You can Donate online. Visiting our website allows you to make
your donation from your home or office computer. Any amount is most
welcome.
4. You can donate a Grand Raffle prize or Auction Item for our
Jesters Party Night. We especially look for airline tickets, travel
packages, hotel/restaurant vouchers, etc., for our GR draw, and signed
memorabilia, art objects, handicrafts, etc., for our auction.
5. You can donate a Children’s Raffle prize. Similarly, we also
welcome good value prizes for our Children’s Fair raffle.
6. You can advertise in our Fair Souvenir Program. Help us cover
the printing costs by booking an ad in our Souvenir Program. Full page
color ads are 7500 baht and half-page ads 4000 baht. Inside covers are
9000 baht.
7. You can Rent a Stall at our Fair. Non-food stalls can be
booked for 1500 baht on the day and food stalls for 2500 baht during
Fair day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. You can book a stall on our website.
Payment for your stall is not due until the day of the fair.
8. You can Donate a Case of canned Beer, or 700 baht equivalent, to
the Jesters Beer Tent. Your donated beer will be sold at 50 baht per
can, which increases the value of your original donation from 700 to
1200 baht.
9. You can buy Children’s Raffle tickets, GR ticket books for our
Party Night or our colorful Event T-shirts.
* Children’s Raffle tickets are only sold on site at the Fair between 10
a.m. and 3 p.m.
* Grand Raffle tickets are sold from July 15th through to the evening of
our Party Night at 50 baht per ticket or 12 tickets (1 book) for 500
baht.
* Event T-shirts are sold at 300 baht apiece or 2 for 500 baht from
August 1st onward. They will be at available at Viking Beachcomber,
Jameson’s Irish Pub, Pattaya Mail Office, and the TQ.
10. Or you can just Display a Bumper Sticker or Poster. This way
to help us is completely free, simply by promoting our Charity Drive by
displaying a sticker on your vehicle or a poster in your shop window.
Additional information on all of the above, plus continuous updates are
available on our website, www.care4kids.info. We hope you will join us
again this our 10th Year of helping the kids in need.
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