As well
as rice almost half a million baht was donated.
Derek Franklin
The annual SOS Rice Appeal 2010 took place over the
weekend of the birthday celebrations for His Majesty the King. From Friday
the 3rd to Monday the 6th of December residents from the Father Ray
Children’s Home and the Father Ray Children’s Village joined the students
from the Redemptorist Vocational School for People with Disabilities and
foreign volunteers from the Father Ray Foundation at many locations
throughout Pattaya.
The aim of the Appeal was to collect as much rice as
possible to help feed the 850 children and students with disabilities
currently being cared for and educated by the Father Ray Foundation, who
each year purchase 75,000 kilograms (75 tons) of rice, and it takes more
than 6,000 kilograms to feed everyone each month.
In these troubled financial times the generosity of the
businesses in Pattaya, namely Foodland, Friendship Supermarket, Tesco Lotus,
Big C, Makro, Central Festival Beach Road, TOPS and Carrefour, allowed the
Father Ray Foundation to handout leaflets and collect rice and donations.
Local residents, Thai and foreign, proved that they
really do have hearts of gold, and over the four days 13,410 kilograms of
rice was handed over and 455,038 baht was placed in the donation boxes.
Enough rice was donated to feed the children and students for two months,
and the money received is enough to purchase enough rice for another two
months.
There are many people to thank for their support and
cooperation in making the SOS Rice Appeal 2010 a huge success; the
supermarkets who gave their permission to use their stores and the children,
students and volunteers of the Father Ray Foundation who stood for many
hours each day outside the stores. The biggest thanks must go to the people
of Pattaya for their generosity to ensure the children and students of our
city will not go hungry.
For those residents and visitors who wish to make a rice
or a cash donation this can be done at the Father Ray Foundation Welcome
Center located on Sukhumvit Road.
More information about the Father Ray Foundation can be
found at www.fr-ray.org or email [email protected] or call 038 716 628.
More
than 13 tons of rice was collected.
