Features

Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome (center) welcomes everyone and speaks about
the goodness of the community banding together to benefit the needy kids,
as (left to right) Lewis Underwood, Graham Macdonald, Sopin Thappajug,
Wannapa Wannasri, and Peter Malhotra look on at the beginning of this year’s Jesters Care for Kids Children’s Fair.

Lewis Underwood
How often have we used the term “bigger and better!” to describe our annual family outing? Year after year, it seems like we use it, or something similar. But then we usually canvass the fair goers to get our impressions and ‘bigger and better!’ is what we heard. The consensus was that 5000 plus people came through our gates last Sunday, which is plausible. But whatever the numbers were, the point in fact is that the kids had fun. After all that is our goal, and fair site coordinator Kevin Mitch came up with yet another superb stall configuration to help make that happen.

Otherwise, the Jesters Children’s Fair is largely weather dependent and we have been quite fortunate over the last 11 years in this department. True, it has been brutally hot in some years, but then that has been ‘cool’ as long as it was dry.
We attribute our good fortune to the Sisters and with their prayers and lemon grass to continue to ensure clement weather. And that is exactly what we had for the 8th consecutive year at the Diana Garden Resort and Driving Range in North Pattaya. Even when it started to get ‘too hot’ towards the afternoon, the Sisters were able to fine-tune the weather and give us some relief with cloud cover. The result was tons of fun was had by the kids and with a little less sunburn.

Sister Joan (left) says a heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s event, as the recipients of this year’s bicycles are thrilled with their new bikes.

The Fair was kicked off at 10 a.m. with the requisite speeches, including a compassionate one from Pattaya Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome, who spoke about the goodness of the community banding together to benefit the needy kids. Afterward, the other VIP’s joined him, including Sopin Thappajug, Wannapa Wannasri, Graham Macdonald, Lewis Underwood and Peter Malhotra to open the Fair by pounding on a ceremonial drum. This was synchronized with the firing up of the Jesters’ Harleys and the striking up of the marching band from Pattaya School #2.

Our professional comperes for the day, Russell Jay from Southshore Radio 88.5 FM and Poodle Pete, vice president of the Jesters MC, then took over. Turn by turn, kids from our different projects came on stage to fill the morning segment with a mixture of traditional Thai songs and dances, as well as a bit of international contemporary pieces. Some of the highlights of the latter included the Blind School students singing, “You Are My Sunshine” and the Ban Jing Jai kids improvising an old rock anthem with their own refrain, “We will rock you, we are the Jesters”.

Cha Cha entertains her avid fans.
While the stage performances continued, the children’s arcade started rocking too. And we don’t mean just the 9-year old drummer, who was jamming with the band in Pop’s Cool Zone. There were plenty of other special features to keep the kids grooving too, such as Horseshoe Point’s pony rides, Geckotech/Clough Engineering’s climbing wall, the bouncy castle, the carousels, and a myriad of activities and games provided by the schools and other stallholders.
The field games run by Ed Cary and Linden Phanpho were especially popular with the kids, including those from our projects. Prizes for the multiple winners were provided by Scar, Dan Dorothy and Jesters MC.

Cha Cha takes time to pose for photos with her fans.
And amidst it all there were troupes of clowns, jugglers and acrobats to add to the magic. Throw in some Double A candy floss, VFW chili hot dogs, SFA home made apple pies and some AGS Four Winds ice cream and you not only keep the kids sated but also filled with energy to have even more fun.
Great food for us big kids was provided too by Eddie’s Richman Poorman, Bob’s BBQ, Pat’s Pies and Deli, Caf้ Kronborg, to name a few, as well as Spices and Taj’s scrumptious Indian food. Of course, there were plates full of Thai delicacies from all over the country offered by many of the stallholders too. In addition, the Fountain of Life provided free food for hundreds of our sponsored kids.
The highlight of the day for the teenagers was the hour-long concert put on by Grammy entertainers, B.O.Y. and Cha Cha, which was generously, if not painstakingly, arranged by Capt Steve Ponter. The slot was emceed by their DJ Em who got the crowd stirred up and surrounding the stage. The stars put on great show, and then made themselves available for photo ops and autographs.
Speaking of the stage, the last 2 years Geoff Evans and Modern Access Services have graciously donated a high quality professional front stage, which has provided the kids with a uniform-floored structure both safe and sturdy for the kids’ performances and Grammy concerts. Another added bonus has been enhancing the spectators’ visibility of the shows too.
The rest of the Fair set up naturally comes at a cost. Each year we cover these costs mostly from the money raised by Pattaya Sports Club Charity Raffle and the Donated Beer stalls. The former has sponsored our Children’s Raffle prizes for the last 7 years, including 40,000 baht this year, as well as running the stall and drawing on the day (Double A, Pattaya Trader and Diana each supplied a prize this year too). PSC realized a sensational 92,100 baht in ticket sales last Sunday, all of which they handed over to us.
The Donated Beer Tent also did magnificently this year, sparked by Jesters Ronny and Sunkan, who collected over 300,000 baht in beer money donations. This figure was also increased further with the vigorous sales of the donated beer in Pop’s Cool Zone, as well as the two Jesters beer tents. We need to thank Sister Joan for that too, as ‘her’ hot weather probably translated to better beer sales.
Given the funds from the above sources, including those from the schools and many other stalls, who also pass on their proceeds to us, not only do we cover our costs, but also raise money for funding more needy kids’ projects.
So was the Fair bigger and better? We think so. We would also like to say that we will try our best to make it even bigger and better next year.
In the meantime, we hope to see you tomorrow, the 19th, at our final event, the Jesters Party Night at Jameson’s Irish Pub in Central Pattaya, for an evening of auction items, grand raffle prize drawings and good music. The fun starts a 6 p.m. Come early and you can also welcome Erik and Robert back from their awesome pushbike adventure.
See you then!

JCD 2009 Beer Donors

Moe & Larry Deverdenne, Mark Gorda, Rick Moren, Geoff Evans, Jim Elsey, Billy Powell, Bert Fagrell, Bob De Angel, Paul Baker, Tony, Bernie, Midland, Hasse Gustafsson, Christian Widing, Lasse Adahl, Tim Kruise, Steve Ruddell, Peter Blair, Randy Sherwood, Ritchman Poorman, Dough David, Terry Watson, Lady Di, Mitchell, Big Nose Jim, K. Gene, T. Fuller, Garfield, Chris Oxley, Centaurs Construction, Tin Electric, Lasse Nygren, Kjell Ingemarsson, Dave Campbel, Mike Turp, Santa Claus, Big Tom, Alan Whiteway, Crille Longhair, Christer Johnson, Berna, Roger Olsson, Stefan Widing, Mark Picard, Alan Pedersen, Paul Mitchell, Top Shop, Sascha The Dog, Jon Fox, Matt Winter, John House, Janne Persson, Michelle Tailor, Klemman, Andreas Justesen, Martin Simonsson, Niklas Blomqvist, Peter Bjurqvist, Edin Huskanovich, Thailand Places.Com, Michel Bains, Per Kullberg, Chris Freeman, Da, Ilia, David, Roland, Pack, Lawrence, John Brush, Peter, P.J., Martin Hanfeldt, Ted, Craig Cowboy, Farang Lee, Ponta, Muffy, Paul Caramba, Janne Low-rider, Tosse, Kaj Dahlviken, Dale Drader, Ray Lepard, James Millar, Douglas Millar, Sunantha Khamhiatong, Matt Millar, Mark Champbell, Stefan Hoge, Larry Ball, Paul Owens, Kurre & Ulla, Hakan & Lena, Saigon Bar, Robert & Jim, Martin & Edin, Doc, Jesters, Sweet Lou, Chris, Sam & Koy, Jari Logren, Loveboat, Loveboat Lin, Monne, Mark Finn, Tom Paul Enright, Uffe, Hasse Gustafsson, Pak, Andreas Justessen, Nevada, Soda, Hans Larsson, Micke, Hill Bill Sunkan, Swedish Friends, Toed, Paul Shortino, Mark, Niklas Axelsson, Sunkan, Ronny Ohman, Burapha, Olle Eriksson, Rolf Uutisalo.

Pattaya Sports Club Children’s Raffle Prizes

Prize                                       Winner
Mp4 DVD Player                       Justin Potisit
Child’s Bicycle                          Richard Wolff
2 Remote Control Cars               Brian De-Bruyne
Police M/Cycle                          Suaporn
Samsung Digital Camera            Bernard Andrews
Refrig Water Cooler                   Douglas Millar
Mickey & Minnie Mouse            Douglas Millar
Acoustic Guitar W/Case            Kevin Mitch
B&D Home Repair Kit               John Herbert
Scan Print Copy Ph. Fax.          Kallyarat Choomjit
Talking Dictionary                     Rod Howett
Sports Equipment                     Rattanaporn
Slimline Color TV                      Nattanaporn Soorapanthu
Karaoke Set                             Kallyarat Choomjit
Mountain Bike                          Douglas Millar
Bear Family                             Don Barker