TOKENS OF LOVE

Last Friday, I had the pleasure of doing some volunteer work for “Coins on Silom,” an annual event sponsored by the Rotary Club of Bangkok South that benefits local charaties. For the past nine years, the members of this group and their friends have been collecting money along a section of Silom road between the Dusit Thani Hotel and Soi Lailaisap to go towards projects that benefit the underprivileged in Thailand. The donations are used for things like water purification systems for schools in upcountry Thailand, homes for disabled children, schools for the deaf and the blind, self-sustaining “mini-farm” food projects for rural schools and other programs aimed at helping low income communities.

Collecting money from people at a public place is fairly easy, but at times a bit frustrating. I’m the first to admit that nine times out of ten I don’t want to be bothered by people giving away (or collecting) anything on the street – whether it be credit card applications or money for a charity. If a stranger starts talking to me, I usually avoid eye contact and keep walking, especially here in Bangkok where solicitors can be found at every Sky Train station, on every street corner, and all places in between. The fact that I don’t speak their native language and therefore am unable to fully comprehend the message is the main reason for this, but the natural tendency to not want to be bothered by a stranger also plays into it. So for these reasons, I can’t blame the people that flat out ignored me that day.



At first I tried to fit in with the crowd and get my message out in Thai by saying “kaw chuay dek pican” which roughly translates to “please help the crippled children.” Judging my the number of confused looks I got, I most likely butchered the phrase every time it left my mouth, so after awhile I just started soliciting money in English and hoping that people would understand. It should be noted that most of the (mainly male) Farangs I tried to talk to avoided me like the plague.



Every person that donated received two round stickers. One had the Rotary’s “Coins on Silom 2006” logo on it and people were supposed to wear this during the day so that others would know that they donated. The other stickers had the logos of the events two platinum sponsors (California Wow Xperience fitness centers and Chang beer) and donors were supposed to place them on a strip of 3M red cloth tape (from another major sponsor) as a symbolic coin to recognize the collective efforts of everyone making contributions. I found that most people didn’t want to be bothered with bending down and putting a sticker on a piece of cloth on the sidewalk and I ended up putting most of them on myself. I’m told that in the past people were given an actual metal coin to put down and something tells me that people would feel that this is more symbolic than a sticker with a logo, although I’m sure that the folks at California Wow, Chang, and 3M certainly donated enough for the privilege of getting a small portion of their corporate identity out there. Perhaps next year a compromise that the general public can get more enthused about can be found. In addition, there were a few activities going on during the day including a ceremony to celebrate the donations and some Chinese acrobats and dancers to liven the mood.







All in all, I felt the experience was rewarding and worthwhile. I made some new friends and any time one can help those less fortunate than themselves is a good feeling (and yes I did put some of my own money in my collection can). Getting a reaction from a stranger, whether it was from an actual donation or the smile that goes along with it is also nice and something I will remember about “Coins on Silom.” I’m told that the event went well beyond last year’s totals as well as this year’s goal, while setting an all-time record for donations in the event’s history. The knowledge that I was a part (a very small part) of that is something that I will personally value until next year when I will try again to give a little of my time to this worthy cause.



Special thanks to Jim Fowler for the photographs and for inviting me to this event.