Thank you Chiang Mai for yet another incredible day out at the Citylife Garden Fair! Together, we raised 200,000 baht exactly, which we have now handed over to the Chiang Mai Provincial School Development and Human Security Office, to help rebuild up to 20 homes for the most vulnerable and poorest of flood victims in Chiang Mai.
It was a gloriously sunny cool morning on the 23rd November, when our 300 stall holders set up and put the finishing touches on their pop up stalls around the lush green gardens behind our location partner Boonthavorn. Dotted along ponds, under trees, down paths and flanking streets, stalls selling Christmas decorations, Thai and international foods, refreshments, natural products, children’s games and so much more got ready for the day, as visitors started pouring in hours before the official opening time.
Soon, we were heaving and the annual Citylife Garden Fair was in full swing. The stage saw adorable school acts and rock bands, live auctions with rapid bidding from as far afield as Bangkok (by phone) as well as eager local bidders and the Citylife booth was busy selling tombola tickets to hundreds of lucky winners, who walked away with hundreds of thousands of baht’s worth of goods—all kindly donated by Citylife’s clients, business partners and importantly, friends in the local community and beyond.
It was a wonderful day for all, and with spot-counting throughout the day, we can happily announce that there has never been a more busy fair than 2024’s—we had well over 12,000 Thai and international visitors on this one day!
Hotels reported selling hundreds of thousands of baht of vouchers, stalls said they sold out their products before the end of the day, one pizza joint made over 60,000 baht in sales and an ice cream brand said that they sold 1,000 scoops of their new ice cream flavour! It was fun, it was fabulous, and importantly, we raised 200,000 baht to help those who need our collective help the most.
The money raised by us all was handed over this week on Tuesday to the government office, working alongside the Chiang Mai Social Corporate Responsibility Initiative, Boonthavorn and its affiliates to go towards rebuilding up to 20 homes devastated by this year’s floods. Boonthavorn, organised a one day workshop on Tuesday with a number of volunteers who learnt how to rebuild these houses identified by the government office. Over the course of the coming weeks, these volunteers will be using Boonthavorn products from tiles to toilets, paints to cement, to rebuild and add value to these homes, which were for various reasons ineligible for traditional channels of government support.
Thank you to our super generous donors which included some of the finest companies here in Chiang Mai as well as to you all who came along, and reached deep to buy a tombola ticket or two or bid on an auctioned item. We are so grateful. See you next year on the 22nd November 2025!
