Bangkok, August 30, 2018 – TMB and ING Bank invites everyone to Make THE Difference for children with heart disease by participating one of this year’s biggest charity walk and run events – “TMB I ING PARKRUN 2018,” on December 2 under the concept “You can … Make THE Difference” in any park nationwide. This event will change not only the participating runners’ life but also the life of children living with cardiac children. TMB | ING PARKRUN. The participating runners are also empowered to do more for the children by creating fundraising pages on social media and inviting friends and families to send donations in support of the runners. All ticket proceeds and donations will go to the Cardiac Children Foundation of Thailand under the Royal Patronage of HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana for cardiac operations of the children.
Mr. Piti Tantakasem, Chief Executive Officer of TMB, said “TMB is committed to improving customer’s quality of life. We also believe that everyone has the power to Make THE Difference for self, society and the world around us for better quality of life. TMB I ING PARKRUN will be held for the ninth consecutive year by TMB in collaboration with ING Bank. For four years in a row, the event has been aimed at raising fund for cardiac children and has helped save the life of more than 900 children. However, with the constraints of medical resources and family’s fund, there are still more than 1,000 cardiac children awaiting assistance. Therefore, I would like to invite everyone to Make THE Difference together to help keep the heart of these children beating by taking part in TMB | ING PARKRUN 2018. This year, we have taken our event to the next level by turning it into a ‘NATIONWIDE PARKRUN’ in which participants can run with us in any park and help donate for the cause.”
A new addition to this year’s event is the ‘Virtual Park Run’, in which participants can run in any park at your convenient time on December 2. In the event that all runners reach an accumulated distance of 100,000 kilometers, TMB will add an additional donation of 1,000,000 baht to the fund raised from this year event. The runners can also play a bigger role by creating online pages to help raise more money from friends and families via Facebook, and, at the same time, helping to boost the social awareness about children suffering from cardiac disease and how the public can help them.
Mr. Frans Middendorff, ING Bank’s Head of Corporate Communications for Asia Pacific, said, “ING is very pleased to have been TMB’s partner in hosting TMB I ING PARKRUN for several years, and this is due to the convictions we share. Apart from our dedication to offering better financial assistance to our customers, we also strive to demonstrate our commitment to corporate social responsibility and improve our society. We are proud to be playing a part in giving children with heart disease access to operations they need as well as a chance at a normal life. This year, we have added NATIONWIDE PARKRUN to our program to provide more ways for people to participate in the run, which will translate to more opportunities to help these children. I would like to invite everyone across the country to join us in giving a better life to these children.”
The event on December 2 will also see Thailand’s well-known celebrities, including ‘Toey’ Pongsakorn Mettarikanon, ‘Ice’ Apissada Kreurkongka, and Gun Kantathaworn joining other runners for the good cause.
Creating a fundraising page is designed to be simple and easy. A registered runner is invited to visit www.makethedifference.org/parkrun web site and follow the instructions to build a page and share it on social network for donations from friends. Every 30,000 baht raised will enable one child to undergo cardiac operations. The more fundraising pages are created and shared the greater chance ones can help save the cardiac children.
TMB I ING PARKRUN 2018 will be held on December 2, 2018, with the main event taking place in the adjacent public parks -- Chatuchak Park, Queen Sirikit Park, and Wachirabenchathat Park (State Railway Public Park) and will be divided into three categories, namely 2.6 km., 5.2 km., and 10.3 km. Runners can also take part in the Virtual Park Run, in conjunction, on the same day in any park at their convenience. Those interested can purchase a ticket for 600 baht at makethedifference.org/parkrun from September 3, 2018 onwards until sold out. The well-designed and high quality running shirt, made from DryDye fabric used at several international events, will be delivered by post.
Ticket holders can request receipts from TMB Foundation for the full amount of ticket cost for annual income tax deduction purposes. Receipts will be sent out to requesters by December 2018. All proceeds from ticket sales, donations from the public and TMB will go to the Cardiac Children Foundation of Thailand under the Royal Patronage of HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana to fund the cardiac children operations project.
