Phuket Community Foundation

The 4^th PCF’s Toy Library has been opened at Baan Bangkhu School, a small primary school opposite to Boat Lagoon.

Phuket Vice Governor Teerayuth Eimtrakul snipped the ribbon to open the fourth toy library organized by the Phuket Community Foundation (PCF) at Baan Bangkhu School opposite to Boat Lagoon on Feb 26th. The library is plenty with toys that were supported by many contributors and the main supporter – Phuket International Hospital (PIH) that organized the Teddy Bear sale during Christmas 2009. PIH also donated THB20,000 in order to support PCF’s Toy Library series in the future.

In additional, PCF donated THB5,000 to support the fund for children’s lunch.

The Phuket Community Foundation has launched its first grant-making period,whereby individuals, community groups and charities who have good ideas for projects to improve Phuket can apply for financial assistance.

The period for making applications expires at the end of March, following which the PCF will make decisions as to who gets grants, and for how much.

Links to PDF documents are below. If your browser is PDF-enabled, simply click on the links. Otherwise, right-click on the links and “Save As”

To read PDF files you will need Adobe Reader, which can be downloaded free here.

To download details and rules, click here. (PDF)

To download a grant application, click here.(PDF)

To download a sample of the contract to be signed by successful applicants, click here.(PDF)

Thanks to a donation of B10,000 from Paul and Heidi Müller of Switzerland, the PCF was able to pay for a slap-up lunch for almost 200 kids at Baan Bang Rong School in the northeast of the island, to celebrate Children’s Day.

Children’s Day, January 9, is celebrated across Thailand with song and dance performances, along with plenty of games with small prizes for the winners. This year it fell on a Saturday, so was celebrated in schools the previous day.

In addition to the Müllers’ donation, the kids also received  home-made coconut ice cream, made by Manosit Jangjob and paid for by Riam Niyomkichakarn. The Kusoldharm Foundation donated 250 bottles of water, Thanawut Tohthong donated 200 packs of colour pencils and Millenium Graphic donated 200 sheets of paper for drawing.

The PCF would like to express its gratitude to these people for making Children’s Day special at this school in one of the poorer parts of Phuket.

Governor Wichai checks a defunct bulb.

The Governor of Phuket, Wichai Phraisa-ngop, kindly opened the PCF’s most recent session of replacing broken rear lights bulbs on motorcycles, on Saturday and Sunday (December 26 and 27).

As before, the session took place near the market at Anuphas Manorom, just south of Phuket Town and, as before, motorcycles were checked by members of the Kusorndharm Foundation and the work was done by students from the Phuket Technical C0llege, using bulbs donated by local motorcycle dealers. A total of 218 bulbs were changed.

This time, the PCF also used the occasion to collect research data. The makes and models of bikes were logged, along with the age of each machines and its riders’ estimate of how long it had been since he or she last changed the rear light bulb.

Once a large enough sample has been gathered, it may be possible to draw some conclusions as to the makes and/or models that are most prone to blowing bulbs. The PCF plans to pass this information on to motorcycle manufacturers in Thailand in the hope that they will look into the problem and devise a solution – and put the PCF out of work.

Book delivery at Wat Muang Mai School. At rear, from left, PCF President Pranee Sakulkpipatana, Norman Dawkins of Rotary and Cindy Ratcliffe of the PCF.

The PCF has, over the past few weeks, been helping with a Rotary Club programme to provide English-language books to schools on Phuket.

So far, books have been delivered to the following schools: Hongyok Bamrung, Wat Muang Mai, Thalang Pranangsang, Baan Bang Rong, Baan Ao Por, Baan Para and Baan Pa Khlok.

The books were bought in the USA by Patong Rotary Club member Rick Gartland, using funds transferred from the now defunct Laguna Rotary Club. Funding was enough to buy 24 boxes of children’s books in English, including more than 1,600 titles and six encyclopedias.

In Phuket, the books were received by Patong Rotarian Norman Dawkins and distributed to schools suggested by the PCF.

Six small ducks, six big prizes: Our delightful duck catchers, Ni, Jane, Ben, Daojai, Joffy and Poy, with the winning ducks. - Photo by In4World Media.

The Phuket Community Foundation (PCF) is delighted to announce that its income from the Race Day held on November 7 totaled around 288,000 baht. A few more small contributions are still awaited, but are not expected to significantly change the total figure.

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.

“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 other aim of the event – to raise 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.

We’ve uploaded some pictures from Race Day to PhotoBucket.

To view the gallery, click on the picture at left.

To see a slide show of the same pictures, go here.

We’ll add  more pictures as they come in. Thanks to all those who have contributed photos.

Couldn’t make it to Race Day? Wanna know if your duck was a winner?

Here are the winning numbers (click to enlarge).

And here’s a movie by Ed Vaughan of the Duck Race itself.

Very big thanks to all the others who helped make this such a very successful day.

See who here.

Now is that a machine? Blow, baby, blow!

Had a great day today – final rehearsal for the Great Phuket Rubber Duck Race. The amazing machine built by K. Kriangsak and his team at Laguna may look like something from a Mad Max movie, but it moves those ducks along nicely.

Eeehah! I'm in the lead!

The machine consists of a barge with nine huge fans mounted on it that blow the ducks along, and it follow them quietly, shepherding them all the way to the finish line, which is where our six gorgeous Duck Catchers will be waiting to scoop the six winners out of the water. This is a spectacle we can guarantee will be a first in Phuket. In fact, a first in Thailand! Don’t miss it!

The duck race will take pace at 4pm, but we’ve also got a full afternoon of dragon boat, kayak, raft and cardboard box races, and tons of side stalls with games and great stuff for sale.

If you want to race, try to get there a bit early to avoid disappointment  – we’ll be open for registrations from about midday.

You know you’d be quackers to miss it. See you there!!

An update for those of you who have not yet backed a duck in the Great Phuket Rubber Duck Race:

Duck ticket sales at local shops etc have now CLOSED. Internet sales of duck numbers have also closed. All unsold tickets are being collected and will be for sale tomorrow, at the event, in the main marquee in the centre of Canal Village.

SO IF YOU WANT TO BACK A DUCK, BE THERE EARLY!

Last chance! You’d be quackers to miss it.