Chiang Rai Hangover Bar Fund Drive/ride For Wiang Pa Pao Dormitory Fire

[kandahar]

Steve, at the Hangover Bar in Chiang Rai, is organizing a fundraising ride to Wiang Pa Pao to donate financially to the recovery of the school that burned recently. Anyone who wants to contribute and join the ride/drive to the private school is asked to assemble at Hangover Bar on Monday, the 30th of May, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. At 10:00, the group will leave the Hangover Bar and proceed approximately 80 km to the school and make their contribution. Primarily a bike ride, all types of vehicles are encouraged to attend. Bring your wallet and give individually at the school and/or if you cannot attend, feel free to leave your donation with Steve or with any friend who will be making the trip. Steve will dutifully record the names and amount of any donations left in his care before donating that amount to the school.

There will be a coffee stop at Charin Resort on the initial leg of the trip and on the return trip.

This drive is not related to a specific group or club. Everyone is welcome.

Hangover Bar location details:
Located at the orange marker on this Google map- Google Maps
Approximate GPS coordinates are:
Degrees Lat Long 19.9031100°, 099.8325950°
Degrees Minutes 19°54.18660', 099°49.95570'
Degrees Minutes Seconds 19°54'11.1960", 099°49'57.3420"
Google Street View of the driveway entrance and front of the bar- Google Maps (In the back corner of that parking lot)

 

[ianyonok]

That's a great and noble idea. Well done Steve. I will try to make this one.

 

[ianyonok]

I headed to Chiang Rai, met up with Joakim at his cafe, ChivitThammada. He was on his Bonnie and I took the KLX due to the rain when I left home. We got to the Hangover Bar just as the riders were leaving on the charity ride to Wiang Papao. We headed out of the city on the old Chiang Mai road and met up again at Charin Garden resort.

There were 2 new Indians on the ride, a Chief and a Scout. Very different machines but both great looking and certainly went well.

There was a mixed bunch of Chiang Rai riders, many of whom I had ridden with before, including Marty from Chiang Rai Saddlebags and some of the Chiang Rai Road Eagles.
There was occasional intermittent rain on the ride south and we met again at the White Cup coffee shop in Wiang Papao. Another bunch of riders had ridden up from Chiang Mai, including Hoghead. Altogether we had about 30 people, 25 bikes and a number of cars came along too.

Steve from the Hangover Bar then handed out envelopes for everyone to make a donation. It was decided that he would hold the money and set-up a meeting later on, with the parents of the kids who died or were injured. There was also talk of fitting smoke alarms. A total of over 78,000 Baht was raised for the school, from everyone there.
Khun Manas and Justin were there from the Global Catalytic Network Co. They had agreed to match the donation amount with the same amount donated from their company.
A little later we rode a few klms to the school.

The school is a fairly large complex of many buildings, classrooms, dormitories and canteens.

The sight of the dormitory where the fire happened, brought a tear to many an eye. 38 children, all girls, between the age of 5 and 12 were asleep when the fire started at about 11:00pm.
20 children were rescued by firefighters, but 18 died. The school is run by a Christian charity and is known for providing free education to poorer hill tribe kids.
It has been operating for 5 years and had about 140 students.

TRAGIC............. One small bottle of water and box of soya milk for each child.................

If anyone wishes to make a donation, Steve at the Hangover Bar on Jetyod Road in Chiang Rai city is the man to see. We expect there may be a presentation at the school at some stage in the future, when the collected donation is handed over.

 

[DavidFL]

Well done. Nice event. Congratulations guys.

 

[Moto-Rex]

The fire was an extremely sad and tragic event. Well done to you guys for helping out.
Is there anyway riders that could not make the ride be able to donate to the school?

Moto-Rex

 

[kandahar]

Other than showing up at the school, I am not sure. I think the donation accounts have been closed and money distributed.

Steve is considering starting a smoke detector fund that can purchase smoke detectors at wholesale prices so that the money goes further. He hasn't really committed to this 100% yet, I believe. He spoke of this on the same day that he decided to start a fund drive for the school casualties. It is a big chore to take on and I think he wanted to see how the first drive went. If he does go ahead with it, the general idea at the moment is to find groups that can go out, find appropriate buildings and install the detectors with the approval of the owners/administrators, of course. Those buildings would be put on a list and each year rechecked and new batteries installed. So, maybe consider a donation towards such an idea?

If he goes through with it, there will be a new thread on this forum with details. In the meantime, any other group that starts and implements such a program would be welcome in just about any province, I think.