GTH birthday bash pulls in a cool Bt6.39m for charity

GTH birthday bash pulls in a cool Bt3.7m for charity

 

GTH ISN’T A fresh-faced kid in show business anymore, but it certainly isn’t showing any early wrinkles either as it celebrates its 11th anniversary with a series of special activities on TV and elsewhere. The most laudable of these was Sunday’s fund-raiser for charity that saw at least a hundred GTH stars, directors and producers participating in the day-long event, part of which was aired on the GMM One channel. Proceeds from viewer donations, the sale of special T-shirts and Sunday’s auction of celebrities’ personal items are going to the Siriraj Foundation for pharmaceutical research. 

The auction alone raised Bt133,000 thanks to GTH fans and executives, allied businesses, alumni from the studio and many private citizens. And the bidding process was far from boring, instead presented in that typical fun-filled GTH style. The morning session at Eden at CentralWorld had young fans cheering from the gallery as equally young GTH stars paraded along a catwalk. 

The auction moved to a proper TV studio for the evening and the fun continued, with celebrities taking turns answering donors’ phone calls and putting on little shows of their own. 

Kudos for a great effort goes to all the executives and stars, and particularly to CEO Visute Poolvoralaks and international-sales chief Yongyoot Thongkongtoon, who were there from beginning to end. 

It was also great to see superstars Chermarn “Ploy” Boonyasak and Thongchai “Bird” McIntyre pitching in for a good cause as honorary “telephone operators” taking those calls. Both had dashed over straight from Araya “Chompoo” A Hargate’s wedding reception. 

You could see that the GTH staff and stars were just as giddy as anyone else to be able to get up close and personal with Bird. “He came and said hi to me!” trumpeted singer Kornphob “Joke” Chancharoen from the band So Cool. “I was over the moon that he remembered my name!” 

Bird had a good laugh when actor Sunny Suwanmethanon did an impression of him when he went on the air. You could see Bird among the telephone operators in the background, reduced to giggles. 

As of 11.30pm Sunday, the money raised by all the activities totalled Bt6.39 million, and more is expected because the anniversary T-shirts – printed with the number 11 in 11 different styles – remain on sale at www.GTHStore.com. “We’ll continue selling them,” Yongyoot tells Soopsip. The shirts cost Bt400, but if you donate Bt2,000 you get one free, and if you contribute Bt10,000 you get 11 T-shirts, one in each style. 

If you happen to bump into anyone wearing an “11” T-shirt, you’ll know they helped boost the “Nub Nueng Tueng Anacot” (“Count One to the Future”) project, the aim of which is to help people deal with incurable diseases like cancer and with genetic disorders. 

“I’m impressed with P Geng,” Kriangkrai “Ping” Vachirathammaporn commented on Twitter. The director of “Hormones Series 2” was admiring the job his fellow director, Jira Malikool, was doing with the anniversary telecast. “He said this charity is different from buying coffins for homeless people – it’s a good deed aimed at helping people in the future.”