Soirée consacrée à l'aide des enfants en Thaïlande
The evening of Friday 22nd November 2013 saw a fundraising dinner on behalf of Rejoice.
The venue was Sawadee restaurant found in the village of St. Etienne de Fontbellon in the Ardeche in the south of France.
Restaurant owner and co fundraiser organiser Wanthani Wonggamrai, opened her doors to some 35 diners from several different nations (including Australia, the U.S.A., New Zealand, England, and of course France) all wishing to help Rejoice in its money raising efforts.
Wanthani; a Thai national having lived in France for 30 years, always returns to Thailand on her holidays with a suitcase full of children’s toys and clothes for some of the poorer kids known to her, but this was the first time she had raised money on behalf of Rejoice.
Tickets purchased by the guests included aperitif, a 3 course Thai meal and excellent local Rose, Red and White wine which was kindly donated by local producersBenoit Salel and Elise Renaud.
Before the meal commenced a short talk introducing and explaining Rejoice's role was given by co-organiser Lee Kingston.
Feedback from guests indicated that all were impressed by the work carried out by the charity, and all were especially happy to know the vast majority of their contribution would be going direct to the needy, and not spent on expensive marketing and high salaries.
A total of 885.00€ was raised, with a further sum of 60.00€ added to the amount by Stan and Jo Tallett on the anniversary of their 70th wedding anniversary which fell on the 30thNovember. The couple are Lee's grandparents', but didn't attend the event as they live in the UK.
Also included in the 885.00€ total was a 150€, or 6000THB pledge by one of the guests to sponsor the education of a child for a year. On learning this, a second participant then made a commitment to fund the subsequent years of schooling for the child until they leave school.
