Visit our most recent "Buddy" event, at Maharaj Hospital, click here!
There are two more mini Toy Ride donation events being planned;
The first is Samoeng, Sunday
18th May
2008. (Directions Below!)
The 2nd is Chiang Dao, date to
be announced.
The Samoeng event is confirmed,
whilst arrangements are being made
to set up the Chiang Dao event.
SAMOENG
Chiang Mai ToyRide: Event Number Three on 18 May!
On 6 January, the first Chiang Mai ToyRide leapt into the world with a couple hundred bikes, a few hundred people, several hundred toys and at least a hundred happy kids and orphans who got food, music, entertainment, new toys and a festive experience under their belt. And after expenses for that day, we raised an additional $150,000 baht.
On
12 January, National Children’s Day,
ToyRide Event Number Two gave the
rest of the toys donated the week
before and 200 newly purchased
stuffed animals, Jokerman the Clown,
plus ice cream and sodas for a few
hundred more kids at Vieng Ping
orphanage in Chiang Mai. An exact
count was impossible since they ran
around here and there, came and went
with foster families and crowded
around the clown, the ice cream, the
toys and the Thumb Wrestling
Tournament to win the five major
stuffed animals that were bigger
than the littlest kids.
Unless you were present to witness
the toy feeding frenzy, it’s hard to
imagine the excitement on the faces
of the crush of kids as their eyes
feasted on the mound of toys while
impatiently waiting to dive in and
snatch their own. Just visualize two
hundred American stockbrokers
sitting around a huge pile of dollar
bills. (Unlike this scenario where
several people would have died in
the foray, all of our children
joyfully survived.) This event cost
about 23,000 baht, not including the
several thousand baht worth of toys
leftover from 6 January, nor the
days of work repairing the
orphanage’s playground equipment:
pick up merry-go-rounds and swing
sets, sandblast at Richco
MotorSports, deliver and paint at
another location, and finally return
shiny, like-new equipment that won’t
abuse the orphans. Hats off to
ToyRide founders Richy Wilson and
Robert Straghan for hours and hours
of their time, energy and TLC! (
For a printable PDF file of this
event click here.)
Read Chiang Mai Mail Magazine reports of this event...
Chiang Mai Toy Ride a Smashing Success
On Sunday,
18 May, you’re invited to
be a part of ToyRide Event Number
Three:
ride around
the mountain to the playground of
the Samoeng school to help present
toys, warm blankets, athletic
equipment and food to local kids and
sixty children with family members
from Mai Lan Kham, a poor Karen
village about 30 miles beyond in the
mountains.
Join us on 18 May!
We will meet at Yamaha Square, on Huay Kaew road in front of Central Department Store at 10:00AM.
We will then ride from Yamaha Square to Samoeng where the children will be brought from their villages and gifts presented.
Toys and donations generated from the January, Chiang Mai ToyRide 2008 will be brought to the event site. However if you wish to enjoy yourselves even more, donate and bring a new toy along with you on your motorcycle. The smiles it will generate are priceless.
If you didn't come you missed a fantastic event which had great attendance. A full report and photos will be posted soon.
Donations
All funds raised will be distributed by the ToyRide committee through the nonprofit Give and Live at other events throughout the year at these tentative venues: 1) children’s cancer, HIV and acute care wards at Chiang Mai’s Maharaj Government Hospital with exceptional facilities for low income or impoverished families; 2) less-fortunate children near the city of Chiang Dao; and 3) a poor Lisu or Lahu village in the north near Sappong. We’re trying to focus on needy children who are “under the radar” because of their remote locations – folks that haven’t been helped by other charitable organizations.
We’re already planning next year’s bigger and better Chiang Mai ToyRide. Mark your calendar today for future fun and giving on Sunday, 4 Jan 2009!
TOY RIDE
2009
Planning is already in the works &
info will appear here.
The event is scheduled for Sunday
4th January 2009.
Many more people / companies /
organizations have expressed
interest in supporting the 2009
event, & indeed future toy rides. So
it seems as if the 2008 Toy Ride was
a real success, especially with
proper accounting transparency.
Thank you to all those who rode on,
worked on or donated to the 2008
event.