Month-long memorial marks 15 years since Father Ray’s death

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Father Ray representative Sajajima Chaowalitdamrong announces the schedule for the month-long Father Ray Brennan memorial in August.
Father Ray representative Sajajima Chaowalitdamrong announces the schedule for the month-long Father Ray Brennan memorial in August.

The Father Ray Foundation will mark 15 years since the death of founder Rev. Raymond Brennan with nearly a month of celebration in August.

Father Ray representative Sajajima Chaowalitdamrong, Pattaya Deputy Mayor Vichien Pongpanit and other city officials announced the schedule for the memorial, which will kick off Aug. 7 at the Redemptorist School for Persons with Disabilities.

A fair will feature booths offering discount products from factory outlets, secondhand stores, electronics and more from Smart Home.

From Aug. 17-21, the school will house booths offering free services including health checks, eye exams, haircuts, games and sports.

The commemoration will wrap Aug. 25 with a closing ceremony at the school at 10 a.m.

Brennan was born Dec. 7, 1932, in Chicago. He came to Thailand in 1961 as a volunteer to assist impoverished and disabled people and from that day until his last he devoted himself to assisting Thailand’s poor.

He established the Orphanage Foundation in the early 1970s, after a baby was left in his care. In the early 1980s, a young deaf boy was left at the orphanage and Brennan was unable to find a local school for him. This led to the opening of the Sotpattana Kindergarten School for the Deaf in 1983.