CellMark 30th Anniversary Event a Huge Success for PaperSeed

Spending time with the children of Coconut Club

CellMark, Inc., the company that generously underwrites all of PaperSeed’s administrative costs, held its 30th Anniversary Community Work Event on March 22, 2014.  The funds were raised by the employees and turned into basic items like dried food and diapers, as well as new musical instruments, sports and playground equipment benefiting more than 300 underserved children! 84 CellMark employees were able to travel to Phuket, Thailand for the event, where they visited several orphanages and children’s centers.

Two of the orphanages visited (and which received donations) are the SOS Children’s Village and the Phuket Sunshine Village. Both of these facilities were created following the devastating tsunami of 2004, which left many children without family to care for them. The Villages are organized in a way that provides children a stable home environment and access to education through the college level.

Also visited and receiving donations are Holland House and Uncle Pitak Home in Phuket, Thailand. The Holland House is primarily a day-care center for low-income children of single-parent families and children whose parents are deceased. The Uncle Pitak Home is a unique facility that provides day-care for children of prisoners and children from the slums surrounding the prison. At night the children stay with their mothers in the prison. In both organizations the children are between 0-5 years old.

Enjoying time at the beach with the children of the Coconut Club after-school and residential program in Phuket, Thailand

The last participant in the Community Work Event was the Coconut Club, sponsored by the organization “Phuket Has Been Good To Us.”  The Coconut Club provides after-school, weekend, and inter-session activities to the 130 residential students of Kamala and Kalim primary schools. These areas were almost entirely destroyed following the 2004 tsunami. The residential students are ages 6-18, all orphans.

Creating artwork with the children of SOS Children's Village and Phuket Sunshine Village orphanages in Phuket, Thailand

Everybody enjoyed the activities on site, like dancing with the children, designing a banner, building new playground equipment, painting the old playground, assembling the new sleeping tents as a competition, swimming and playing football at the beach, and just giving hugs and love to the children. This was definitely a memorable day!

Part of the donations raised by the CellMark 30th Anniversary Event also went toward PaperSeed projects benefitting underserved school children in rural Sichuan & Yunnan provinces in China. More info on those projects to follow!