Beautiful, Bodacious, Bountiful Bazaar

The weather was great, the venue grand on Saturday 6th October for the PILC annual Holiday Bazaar.  The day started early (7am to 8.30am) at the Royal Cliff Beach Resort, and it was abuzz with vendors delivering their wares to display and sell at their stalls.  This hive activity was intense, organised chaos, but approaching the magical hour of 10am (when the Bazaar opened officially) calm was restored.  Every table stood proud and twinkled and shined just waiting for the people to come and look at what they had to tempt us with.  The opening ceremony entailed speeches from the PILC Special Events Chairwoman and Bazaar organiser, Cindy Logue, our intrepid President, Rosanne Diamente, and the guest of honor, the wife of the Governor of Chonburi, Dr Tipawan Taerat.  After the ribbon cutting ceremony was so graciously performed by Dr Taerat, the doors to the Siam Ballroom opened with gusto to a festive holiday atmosphere.

The Bazaar set in the fabulous Siam Ballroom was a wonderful sight.  The Ballroom was decked out to the nines in Christmas shades of forest green and cherry red.  The vista looked and felt luxurious, and had a calming yet festive quality to it all.  As usual the agreeable Khun Panga and her staff, notably Khun Pomthip and Khun Joey assisted in numerable ways.  A small army of ‘helpers’ were on hand to assist the vendors with all their requirements too.  All this was done with precision and a minimum of fuss.

  

The anticipation was high as this year saw 70 plus vendors from across Thailand graciously taking part in the PILC Bazaar.  Needless to say, there was a mammoth selection of goodies to select purchases from: wine, cards, Christmas decorations, hand made paper, home-décor, baked goods, stationary, perfumes, jewellery, fashion accessories, candles, clothing, rugs, crafts, food vendors, gourmet food and beverages, a children’s playroom, superb model planes & boats and beaten stainless steel bowls etc. just to mention a few.  In addition, each and every one of the vendors’ bigheartedly donated gifts to the PILC to be used in future raffles to raise additional funds for the PILC Welfare projects.

Parents were able to shop ‘child free’ as the Children’s Room was busy, busy, busy entertaining all the smalls with games and a colouring competition with colouring books sponsored by Nancy Chandler.  There were clowns in attendance, provided by the generosity of Capt. and Mrs Steve Ponter of the Jesters.  Also a huge thank you is extended to Kim and her fantastic staff from Jameson’s Pub who supplied lunch for the 60 plus Baan Jing Jai Orphanage children and staff. Also many Thanks to Amber with the Party Shop and Mr Tuxedo and his magic show troop, they had the children spell bound, it was fantastic.  Thanks also to Marg and the ISE children who came and did beautiful face painting.

   

This was a seriously good opportunity to purchase high quality Christmas gifts, or just gifts in general.  I know I got a bit of Christmas shopping done!  How exciting!!  It’s only October and I have started to conquer the Yuletide shopping.  Many a power shopper was spotted in the early hours, snapping up lots of bits and pieces with fans of shopping bags in tow in both hands.  I know I thoroughly enjoyed my shopping experience; nice to know I was able to purchase some unique and special pieces, but also that in the process our numerous PILC charities will benefit. The more we spend, the more we make.  Now who could (surely not even our husbands!) complain about that?
 
Thank you, thank you to the generous souls that donated such wonderful and so many prizes to our enormous Raffle: there were in excess of 50 prizes on offer.  Amazing; these included a luxury holiday, dinner for two at several well loved restaurants, escapes to charming destinations, jewellery etc.  Your kind gifts are the backbone to our fundraising event and we humbly salute you all.  Merci beaucoup.  Khorp khun mak kha.  Dank schon.  Grazie mille.  Efharisto poli.  Tackar sa mycket.  Our deepest and sincere thanks.

The raffle prize winners are as follows:

All prizes must be claimed by Tuesday, November 6, 2007, or they will be used by PILC at a future date to raise more money for their charities.  To claim your prize, contact Cindy Logue 086-039-7811, or Rachel Hoag 081-782-6118.

Our immense gratitude and appreciation is also extended to our most magnanimous sponsors: Transpo International Ltd., Foster Wheeler & Volclay Siam.  Their continued support of PILC is much appreciated and most welcome.  Your generosity is astonishing.  Thank you all. 

The 2007 PILC Bazaar raised in excess of 400,000 Baht.  Well done everyone. …In total, 580 people passed through our doors to enjoy the shopping, eating, browsing and colourful displays. Finally, our especial thanks and appreciation are extended to Cindy Logue who worked tirelessly planning and executing this (her inaugural) Bazaar and to her dedicated committee members: Judy Clausen, Rachel Hoag, Janet Seale, Alvi Sinthuvanik, Ingrid Cunliffe, Rosanne Diamente, Elaine Poole, Kathleen Petras, Kavita Lamba, and a host of other PILC members.  Cindy, it was great and an immense amount of work.  And you did all this whilst still remaining sane; a grand effort and wonderful success!!  Bravo ladies!