Coming Up in December:
I would like to begin this month’s President’s Message with warm wishes to all for a joyous holiday season. This month includes Thai Father’s Day, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and, of course, New Year’s Eve. I hope everyone enjoys this special time of the year.
December is also the month where CMIRC is hosting a very special event: “An Evening of Love and Support for the Mae Tao Clinic.” The event is on December 7 at the Amora Hotel near the Thapae Gate beginning with dinner at 6 pm. It will feature Mae Tao Clinic founder Dr. Cynthia Maung as the keynote speaker. The Mae Tao Clinic was CMIRC’s first service project and we continue to support the projects there that share our focus on children’s safety, health, and education. Please plan to attend!
What happened in November:
Of course, first and foremost, our projects focused on Child Safety, Health, and Education continued with the great efforts of all of our Rotarian and Friends of Rotary volunteers. Service is and always has been the prime motivator for our club members, there will be more about the specific project activities later in this Bulletin. I will focus this month’s President’s Message on the efforts we make to fund our charities.
The month began with “It’s Only Rock and Roll But (You’ll) Like It” Rolling Stones tribute band charity concert and it was a great success. Many, many thanks to Joe Cummings and his amazing Bangkok-based band, The Midnight Ramblers; they literally had our members and guests dancing in the aisles! We had a total attendance for the evening of about 140 people, and as a result of our ticket sales, raffle proceeds, wine sales, and after party with the band at the Venue, organized by PE Colin the next night, CMIRC raised nearly 100,000 Baht. Our best fall fundraiser yet! It must be said that this net income for our children’s charities would not have been possible if it had not been for the amazing generosity of the Midnight Ramblers! They put 8 great musicians on the stage, all of whom basically donated their performances for our charities. THANK YOU, Joe and the Midnight Ramblers!!
Next came the City Life Garden Fair, where the CMIRC has had a booth for the last 3 years. Our fundraising activity at the fair is the sale of second-hand clothing, books, used electronics, and other household items. In the past this event has netted the club and average of 15,000 - 22,000 Baht each year. This year, however, a last-minute change of location for the event to an out-of-town setting affected our sales. Our net this year of around 8,000 Baht will certainly come in handy though as we seek to fund all our children’s projects.
In addition to the event oriented-fundraising described above we also have CMIRC meeting-based fund raising such as our raffles, donations, and Happy Baht. These proceeds go to our children’s charities and average about 8,000-10,000 Baht/month.
Finally, we also seek grant funding for our projects, and this month we learned that our Children’s Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Project has been selected for an Australian Direct Aid Program Grant to support expanding our survival swimming courses for children to Phrao and the Ban Ya Migrant Learning Centre in Phuket. The total to be granted is 360,000 Baht during 2019.
So, November was an excellent month for fundraising. Thanks to the hard work of the Fundraising Committee led by PP Shana, the grant writing work of the Children’s Water Safety Committee and the Foundations Committee, and the generosity of our members and friends, we raised almost 500,000 Baht in November!! Our goal this year is to donate over 1,000,000 Baht to our children’s charities, so there is still much work to do. And, money alone is not enough. We also need more service-oriented members to organize, facilitate, and plan the best ways to improve children’s safety, health and education here in Northern Thailand.
How readers of our Bulletin can help:
As the reader of this Bulletin will see, CMIRC is doing a lot of great work in our Northern Thai community, especially if you consider that we only have 23 members! So, the message this month ends again with an appeal to our readers. If you live in Chiang Mai or know someone who does, and you think they would be a good candidate for membership in our club, please let me know: john@cmirotary.org. If you wish to make a financial contribution to the CMIRC, please contact treasurer@cmirotary.org.
If you wish to make an in-kind contribution. We especially need children’s toys, sports equipment, and school supplies, please contact president@cmirotary.org or 09 4856 3011.