'Clownfish V' by Christopher Hogan is the top prize in the charity raffle.

A raffle to win a unique signed painting valued at 60,000 baht by Australian artist Christopher Hogan is raising funds for a school in Phang Nga province supported by Laguna Phuket’s “Developing Sustainable Schools” program.

Hogan is currently Artist in Residence at Laguna Phuket’s Summer Family Festival – and the raffle draw will be the centerpiece of the Summer Family Festival “Art Party” in Canal Village on  July 31, when his residency ends.

The raffle prize  - Clownfish V – is a metre-square acrylic painting on canvas and an outstanding example of Hogan’ well-known aquatic-themed work.

With tickets being snapped up, the raffle has already raised thousands of baht for Baan Jao Krue School in Phang Nga province, the current focus of Laguna Phuket’s Developing Sustainable Schools program.

The 100-baht raffle tickets are available from reception desks and tour counters at Laguna Phuket hotels, as well as around the Laguna area in Pepper’s Bar, Khun Woody’s Sandwich Shoppe, Black Cat restaurant, Farang restaurant, Lady Pie restaurant, Village Bakery and the Cherngtalay branch of Siam Commercial Bank.

Other prizes include two nights at a Laguna Phuket resort, a Banyan Tree spa package for two, rounds of golf at Laguna Phuket Golf Club and a Laguna Tours trip for two to Phi Phi Island.

Hogan holds daily painting classes for hotel guests and local residents as part of the Summer Family Festival in Canal Village. He is also volunteering creative art lessons for teachers and pupils of Baan Jao Krue School to initiate the children’s creative studies.

The Laguna Phuket Summer Family Festival runs until August 20 with daily Kidz Fun Zone adventure activities, a Flying Trapeze, Hollywood@Laguna family filming of a “Virtual Motorcycle Tour of Phuket” and nightly entertainment in the beer tent.  The Festival also has a range of offers for children to stay, eat and play free at Laguna hotels until October 31.

Two of the PSV kids on the water at the Phuket Yacht Club in Ao Yon.

The Topper Sail Phuket sailing school and Phuket Sunshine Village (PSV) are looking for a sponsor or sponsors to make a dream come true for a group of orphans from the village.

The seven kids have been training hard at Phuket Yacht Club in Ao Yon with the aim of competing in the Thailand Optimist Nationals at the Top of the Gulf Regatta in Pattaya, from April 30 to May 4.

As Katy Gooch and Paul Firmin of Topper Sail stress, it “would be an incredible experience for these children”.

The seven kids have been sailing most Sundays for just over a year, and have taken part in club racing at Phuket Yacht Club. If they can get the funding, they will also be joined by two other club members, making a total of nine junior entries from Phuket.

“To prepare the children for the Nationals we are arranging for them to join the Advanced Optimist Course run by the Junior Sailing Squadron ( JSST) at Sattahip Naval Base, Chonburi from the 17th – 25th April,” Katy explained.

“This will give them a great opportunity to improve their sailing skills and racing knowledge and the chance to practice with a larger fleet. Arrangements are also being made for them to stay on for further practice before competing in the Nationals.

Staff at Topper Sail Phuket have given their time to teach these children to sail and arrange races for them every month, and Phuket Yacht Club has allowed the children to use its facilities for these races at no cost.

However, the cost of sending the children to the training camp and to the regatta itself is estimated at approximately 100,000 baht, which would cover accommodation, food, course fees, boat charter, entry fees and transport.

“Travel arrangements have not been confirmed,” Katy explained, “so we are looking at various options including the possibility of any sponsored flights from Phuket to Bangkok and/or Bangkok to Phuket.

“I’m happy to give my time to these children from the PSV, but I am not in a position to donate 100,000 baht as well.

“They love to sail and have improved so much since they started learning with us. It would be fantastic for them to have the opportunity to go and compete in the nationals. Sailing helps to instill self-reliance and quick thinking and I have seen first-hand how it has helped these children develop both on and off the water.”

Anyone interested in sponsorship should contact Katy Gooch by email or by calling her at +66 (0) 8 5215 9185

The Phuket Sunshine Village Foundation was founded in 2004 after the Asian Tsunami hit Phuket and provides a safe and secure home for children who are either orphaned or who are no longer able to live with their natural parents.

From left: Kkaew, Jane, PSV Director Nuttisa, Riz, Able and Poy.

You may recall the story we ran about Women’s Will Power, a group of five 30-somethings living in Phuket who removed 90% of their clothing for a glamour calendar, which was then sold to raise money for charity.

The exercise, we’re happy to report, was a success, with the ladies recently visiting Phuket Sunshine Village (PSV), a shelter primarily for abused children but also for kids suffering in the aftermath of the 2004 Asian Tsunami.

The five – Tipwarintron “Riz” Tanaakarachod, Able Wanamakok, Jiraporn “Jane” Chaiyasat, Tippanate “Kkaew” Pittyasamai and Pathamaphan “Poy” Ratanaphan – were fully clothed when they arrived at PSV to hand over a giant cheque for 120,000 baht to the home’s director, Khun Nuttisa. Magician Khun Magic (what else should she be called?) entertained the kids to make the visit complete.

Able says that there are still a few calendars left, which are selling at the discounted price of B299. To get one, contact her by email or look for the Women’s Will Power Charity Group on Facebook.

The Fantastic Phuket team, from left, Hervé Duprat, GM of the Novotel Phuket Resort, See-Som, Sales & Marketing Manager at the All Seasons Naiharn, Tu, Sport & Activities Manager at the Novotel Phuket and Pop, Sales Director at the Mercure Patong.

If you happen to be on Koh Lone, in the middle of Chalong Bay, on March 24, be careful you don’t get run over by 16 red-faced, sweating hotel people pounding along a 4-km course. If you do get run over, consider it a sacrifice to the well-being of the children of Thailand.

The hotel athletes will all be from the Accor hotel group, which is staging this year’s Race For Survival – a group fund-raising event – in Phuket. It’s a pretty grueling event: four days of kayak, swimming, bike and running races, all aimed at raising funds for Accor’s Yim Kids Fund, which will use the money to improve educational opportunities and children’s health.

Specific targets will include supporting slum schools in Bangkok, support for abandoned, HIV-infected children being looked after at Bangkok’s Mercy Centre, helping Koh Lao School in Ranong, which is still suffering from the effects of the 2004 Asian Tsunami, and improving the fishing equipment of villagers on Koh Lone.

The Race For Survival has raised significant charity funds in various places around the world. For example, the event held in Fiji raised more than 5.3 million baht for medical equipment. The minimum target for this year’s Phuket event is 3.6 million baht.

Sixteen teams of four from Accor hotels and offices ranging from Australia to Hong Kong will compete in the Phuket event:

Day 1 – March 22 – will see participants compete in a 5km run from Patong, a 1km swim at Patong Beach and a 20km bike ride from Patong to Naiharn. Day 2 has a 15km mountain bike race, a 1km swim at Naiharn and a 3km kayak race, also at Naiharn. Day 3′s competition consists of a 10km bike ride from Naiharn to Panwa, a 1km kayak race from Panwa to Koh Lone Island and a 4km foot race on Koh Lon Island. Finally, Day 4 will consist of a 1km swim and a 3km kayak race off Koh Lone, and a 20km bike race back to Patong

The local heroes are Fantastic Phuket, a foursome from the Novotel Phuket, the All Seasons Naiharn and the Mercure Patong. To see more about the team, go here. To back them, grab your credit card and go here.

Holly Maitland Smith is just four years old, yet her work has already featured in nine exhibitions in Phuket and Bangkok. This is the acrylics-on-canvas painting that will be for sale at the charity event.

Works of art donated by internationally-renowned artists, galleries and local children will be up for sale on December 9 at Hung Fat’s restaurant, Kalim Beach, with all proceeds to go to the Phuket Has Been Good To Us Foundation (PHBGTUF).

Included in the line-up is a Warholesque portrait of Mao Zedong (valued at B100,000) by Alan Boswell, a landscape with cheetahs (valued the same) by South African impressionist Paul Van Rensburg, and an abstract work by locally-based Varaporn “Map” Pornrit called Inspired by Nature and valued at B140,000.

More affordable is a painting of foliage by Chiang-Mai based artist Apichat Panuwong, valued at B7,000, and two portaits of monks by Burmese painter Zaw Zaw, valued at B25,000 and B35,000.

Also on sale will be a dozen or more remarkably sophisticated paintings by local kids ranging in age from nine to 12 years old and one – the most surprising of all – by Holly Maitland Smith, who is just four years old. Holly, a pupil at the British International School, started painting on canvas when she just two, and since then has completed approximately 250 works. She has her own website here.

Entry to the event costs B1,000 a head, which includes two glasses of wine or beer, and canapés. Apart from an auction, there will also be a prize raffle.

All proceeds will go the the PHBGTUF, which was started after the 2004 Asian Tsunami by the late Tom McNamara, founder of the Baan Rim Pa restaurant group, which includes Hung Fat’s. The foundation currently supports 600 children by educating them to international standards in English, with the aim of giving them a better chance, long-term, at a satisfying and productive career.

As Tom explained when he set up the foundation, “Education is a gift that stays with you forever. You can’t sell it and nobody can take it away from you. It is the best way for us to give back to this island that has been so good to us.” The PHBGTUF website is here.

The WWP girls: From left, standing, Poy and Jane; kneeling, Kkaew, Able and Riz. - Photo by Sakhorn Saengtongsamarnsin

That calendar is finally out – the one with five scantily clad Phuket girls-about-town. The calendar that will raise funds for the orphans at the Phuket Sunshine Village.

The idea for the calendar came initially from Tipwarintron “Riz” Tanaakarachod, former TV reporter, who had visited Sunshine Village on Koh Siray, a visit that sparked memories of her own unhappy childhood. When she heard that the village had no vehicle to take the kids to school, she decided to do something about it.

But a sexy calendar? Not exactly your normal tool for fund-raising. In an interview published recently in the Phuket Post, she explained that a professional photographer, Sakhorn Saengtongsamarnsin, had previously asked her to model for him. Initially she’d done nothing about it, but the needs of Sunshine Village spurred her to gather four like-minded friends and go back to the photographer. “Take our pictures, and we can make money for the kids,” she told him.

The five – the others are Able Wanamakok, Jiraporn “Jane” Chaiyasat, Tippanate “Kkaew” Pittyasamai and Pathamaphan “Poy” Ratanaphan – have been at Central Festival for the past few days, signing and selling calendars at B399 a pop.

They have also linked up with the Cape Sienna resort in Kamala. On December 12, for B1,000, you can get a full dinner buffet, a calendar, two glasses of wine and be entertained by a live DJ, a Latin dance show and a fashion show. There will also be raffles and a silent auction to raise more funds.

We can’t do full justice to the calendar here, but you can get a good idea of what it’s like from this vid. To get a calendar or to book for the Cape Sienna event, visit  this page or email Able.

Six small ducks, six big prizes in the Great Phuket Rubber Duck Race, part of Race Day: The PCF's six duck catchers (from left), Ni, Jane, Ben, Daojai, Joffy and Poy, with the winning ducks. - Photo by In4World Media.

The Phuket Community Foundation (PCF) has announced that its income from the Race Day it organised on November 7 totaled around 288,000 baht.

PCF Director Janyaporn Morel remarked, “We are delighted with the financial result. This is the first time we have organised such an event. It is also the first time that a Rubber Duck Race has ever been organised in Thailand, so we did not expect to make millions.

A dragon boat heads for the start line during Race Day. - Photo by In4World Media.

“We had two aims in Race Day: to raise funds for making grants, and to raise the foundation’s public profile. The feedback we have had from sponsors and participants leads us to believe that we should make this an annual event, and that we can expect to raise considerably more funding from Race Day in coming years.”

She noted that the aim of raising the PCF’s profile had most definitely been achieved. “Many thousands of people will have no trouble remembering the Great Phuket Rubber Duck Race, Race Day as a whole, and the PCF,” she said.

The funds raised at Race Day will go into the PCF’s grant-making fund. In coming months the foundation will call for the submission of proposals from individuals, organisations or communities who have ideas for projects that will improve the island, or a part of it, or an aspect of island life.

The PCF will part-fund projects it believes are viable and beneficial to the island, and will also offer various forms of assistance, ranging from sourcing expert advice and volunteers to helping find additional funding.

Full results of the Great Phuket Rubber Duck Race (the highlight of race day) can be seen here. The PCF website also has links to pictures and a video of the event. TV coverage of the event may be seewn here, here and here.

Job2Do will provide the reggae - perfect music for an evening at the beach on October 17. - Photo courtesy www.job2dothailand.com

The weeks around November 1 – the official start of the “high season” in Phuket, when everyone knuckles down and concentrates on looking after Phuket’s millions of visitors – are full of events, particularly charity fund-raisers.

Apart from the Phuket Community Foundation’s Race Day on November 7 (see earlier story here), there are at least three other fundraisers in the coming weeks. These are:

Saturday October 17, Beach Fun Fest to raise funds for the Patong Rotary Club’s Children’s Scholarship Fund. Starts at sunset at Catch Beach Club, at the north end of Surin Beach. Live music from Thailand’s top reggae artist, Job2Do, plus DJs. The B1,000 ticket price includes a seafood barbecue, prizes, dancing and “fun and frolicking on the beach”. Dress code is “colourful”.

Tickets are available from Twin Palms hotel, the Sandwich Shoppes in Chalong, Patong and Cherng Talay, and the offices of the Phuket Gazette. Alternatively, call Barry Payne at 08 6976 4998 or email him at bpayne@montpeliergroup.com.

On Sunday, October 25, the Soi Dog Foundation will be raising funds for their on-going programmes to look after stray dogs with a Jazz Music Brunch at the Watermark restaurant in Boat Lagoon, from midday to 5pm.

The ticket price of B1,000 baht includes the full-monty buffet brunch with Italian gelato for dessert. Music will be provided by the JazZen Swing Band and DJ Jay Leshark of Phuket FM 91.5 fame. There will also be an auction for “great prizes”.

For tickets contact Cristy at cristy@soidog-foundation.org or call her at 08 5473 4636.

On November 14, the Phket International Women’s Club (PIWC), which raises funds primarily to support young women through their university education, will celebrate 20 years of charitable activities with a party at Le Meridien Phuket Resort & Spa, just south of Patong.

In past years the PIWC’s annual event has always been a grand ball, arguably the event in the Phuket expatriate social calendar. This year, however, they’re going for something rather less formal – the “Twenty Years And Still Rocking….Let’s Party ” party.

As the club explains, “No penguin suits necessary this year, men, but the ladies can still put on the bling and glam it up if they wish. Much more casual ‘party’ atmosphere. Sumptuous dinner, free-flow drinks, live music, dancing and generous prizes.”

The event starts at 6:30pm and goes on until 1am. Tickets, at B3,000 a head, can be bought by contacting Caroline at 08 7280 5746 or by email to info@phuketiwc.com

Specially designed Rubber Duck hats will be offered for sale at the PCF Race Day. Photo by Nan.

The Phuket Community Foundation held a press conference recently to launch its upcoming Race Day.

Some 20 members of local and national press attended the press conference, held at the Baan Klung Chinda restaurant in Phuket Town. Also attending were a number of the event’s sponsors.

Dressed in bright yellow PCF T-shirts and wearing “duck caps” made specially to promote the Great Phuket Rubber Duck Race, which will form part of Race Day, PCF’s director Janyaporn Morel and manager Roonprakai Sang-In explained that the event, on November 7 at Canal Village in the Laguna complex,will comprise a variety of races an other activities.

Starting at 2pm, Race Day will include dragon boat races, kayak races, a home-made raft race, a muay talay competition (boxing while perched on a horizontal pole) and a cardboard box race for kids (last one to sink is the winner).

The big event of the afternoon will be the Great Phuket Rubber Duck Race with hundreds, possibly thousands, of little yellow rubber ducks racing down the canal at Canal Village (the technical staff of Laguna Phuket will make the water move specially for the occasion). Each duck will be numbered on its, er, south side, and the holders of tickets corresponding to the numbers of the first six ducks to cross the line will win big prizes totalling around B600,000.

These prizes are: Four nights for two in a Banyan Tree spa pool villa, with a romantic dinner, a round of golf and full spa treatment; a game fishing trip or luxury cruise for six, from Wahoo; three nights for two at Amanpuri; a year’s family membership of the Phuket International Academy’s sports club (opening next April), an original sculpture from industrial artist John Underwood, and an Apple Mac laptop from Phuket International Academy.

Other charities and community organisations will join in, setting up side stalls with village-fête-type games to keep everyone amused. For kids who know how to kick there will be a Beat the Goalie competition. Not easy – the guy in goal will be Martyn Ware, who was once with Tottenham Hotspur and then with Queen’s Park Rangers.

There will also be a bouncy castle, face painting and balloon animals, and a marquee with food and drinks at very reasonable prices. For those who want to get close to the races, Laguna’s fleet of ferries will be available. Across the road, there will be pony rides, or kids can meet Laguna’s baby elephant.

For more information and to enter any of the competitions, go here. To buy tickets for the Great Phuket Rubber Duck Race, go to this page,  where duck numbers may be bought online, or where buyers can see a list of local duck race ticket outlets. Facebook members have the chance to get – free – four more ducks for each one they buy.

All proceeds from the event will go into the Phuket Community Foundation’s Grant Fund, from which  donations will be allocated to groups or organisations that have good ideas for improving Phuket. Grant applications will be accepted throughout December, with the grants being made in January.

Don't you wish you were young again? PCF President Pranee Sakulpipatana and Phuket Vice Governor Tree Akaradecha help local kids to check out the toys.

The Phuket Community Foundation recently brought a gleam to the eyes of the hundreds of children living in the Mai Khao area when it opened its second toy library at Hongyok Bamrung School, in the north of the island.

A spokesman explained, “Although the Phuket Community Foundation is, strictly speaking, a grant-making organisation – its role is to support  charitable work in much the same way that banks support commerce – we felt it was important to carry out projects of our own to demonstrate how different parts of the community can come together to do something worthwhile in society – something that is not already being done.

“The  toy libraries are one such project. Toys are important to the development of children. They stimulate imagination, help to develop logic and, in a group situation, help children to develop social skills.
“In Phuket, however, there are many families whose income is so low that they can’t afford toys.”

The PCF was inspired by the success in Australia of toy libraries that lend toys to children, in the same way that conventional libraries lend out books.

“We have already set up one library in Wichit and now the second, in Mai Khao. A third will open at Wat Muang Mai School in a month or so.”

The libraries also showcase the PCF’s ability to bring people together, he explained. For example, at the Hongyok Bamrung School, the room was repainted using paint donated by Bamrung Sampaorat, Chairman of the Islamic Committee of Phuket. Helping with the painting were sailors and marines from the US Navy.

2,100 English-language books were donated by Dr Ong Tat Lien of Penang.

Funds to buy the toys, books, furniture and additional paint were donated by Niklaus Siegrist and the Phuket Direct Fund Association of Zurich, and additional toys are coming from private donors, including 60 primary students of the British International School. The library will be run by the school itself.

The PCF is currently compiling a database of people who want to contribute to Phuket in one of four main ways:

• By coming up with projects that improve Phuket – and managing them;
• By offering expert advice free of charge;
• By becoming voluntary workers; or
• By donating or raising funds.

“The structure of the PCF is such that we can fill gaps and address  needs that are not now covered by government, local authorities or  existing charities, all of whom we are happy to support or work with.”

The PCF can also advise companies on ways to get involved in corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects.

Anyone wishing to become involved can send email to talk-to-us@phuketcharity.org or through the website.