Koh Tao Fundraising Project for Alena

Last month on Koh Tao three people were involved in bike crashes. Not a good thing at all.

One of those people was Phanganist's friend and photographer Alena who sustained many injuries in particular to her head.

You will all be pleased to know that she is slowly recovering but is still facing problems due to the accident.

The culmination of these accidents inspired our mate Aaron Edwards to try to bring together the community of Koh Tao in a fundraising but most importantly, an awareness campaign for people to wear helmets.

A key figure in helping this campaign is police officer Viktor who has already been promoting the wearing of helmets and discouraging drink driving by installing a large screen at the pier and working with his colleagues and visitors to the island directly.

To help to raise money for Alena and the campaign, volunteers made donation bottles with the information attached and invited businesses across the island to have these bottles in their premises.

Last week came the time to go and collect the donations so Phanganist joined the effort, went to say thank you and capture these lovely folk who have all played their part in this wonderful community effort.

We started off in Mae Haad, first on the list was Andy and his team at Tattoo Bar.

Moov were happy to help...

Then we went to Bro and Sis bar to collect the fundraising bottle from Jack.

Next was one of Koh Tao's oldest bars Safety Stop which is part of Siam Diving Enterprises who we went to meet and talk to afterwards (we'll have more information coming on them in the next few weeks!).

Ocean Store, part of the same company was also kind enough to have a bottle in their shop.

We then went to hostel and restaurant Taco Shack to collect their donations and talk about life on Koh Tao.

We met some really sweet and friendly people in Koh Tao, their was this lovely lady who was enjoying her trip, sat drawing and people watching outside of Koh Tao Central Hostel which we will get to shortly...

And we were very pleased when we saw young, healthy travellers embracing wearing helmets! One of the slogans from this campaign is 'Don't be a fool, cool kids wear helmets!'...

The thing with Koh Tao is that as it is a relatively small island in comparison to Phangan and Samui, the roads are of course much smaller and less developed so hence you NEED to be more careful.

We then went to see Lek at her Chaiwat Supermarket where they had raised a good lot of Baht!

Very kindly, Koh Tao Animal Clinic had a bottle there also which just shows the kindness of the people in Koh Tao.

After this we started to get into the area of Sairee where we stopped off to collect from Simple Life Divers.

Then Maya Beach Club to see Martin and Simon...

As the sun started to go down we made our way to Tanison's Bar.

Then the Fitness Cafe and Gym to collect their donations whilst people were still working away at their beautiful temple bodies.

We spoke with Sofia about the cafe and gym which you will be able to read about shortly.

Then we hit the restaurants starting with Usi and her Taste of Home...

Then the beautiful italian Vnizza which has only been open on Koh Tao for six months so far.

From there it was a walk down the old walking street to Dream Bar...

And also to Queen's Cabaret to meet all of the sparkly gorgeous ladies and collect their donation.

We finished the evening off with a visit to Bar Next 2 which was holding it's closing party so we finished up a long day with a nice cold Leo Beer, it would of been rude not to!

The next morning, first on our list was Reef, a sports bar and restaurant owned by the lovely John who also has Island Travel and Koh Tao Central Hostel which we'll tell you all about very soon...

We stopped off to see the policemen and collect the donations which they had in the office at the pier.

Then we made our way to CZone to collect the bottle from there and meet Tua and his very sweet and playful little girl.

Our final stop was Fishbowl Bar to meet Sally and owner Nando, we collected the last bottle of donations and could relax...
 
There are more donations coming in but so far over 12,000 Baht has been raised for Alena and the campaign!

We will keep you updated and most importantly want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has helped this cause, a real team and community effort has been shown.

It's really nice to know that people will pull together and help someone in need, whether they know them or not.

There are a few more key helpers in this campaign, for example the team at Ban Sabai Bottle House who we will also be telling you more about over the coming weeks but until then, again THANK YOU to all of the Koh Tao Family!