In April 2025, thirteen Club members and their families spent Songkran at the school we built in 1966. Three hours south of Bangkok, traditional dances, water-pouring, and a building that needs saving.
The school that carries our name is in Nong Plub, Prachuap Kiri Khan Province — three hours south of Bangkok. We built it in 1966, donated the 50,000 Baht that paid for the first classroom. The Princess Mother came when it was done in 1969, named it "Rotary Bangkok School," and gave her own name to the original building — the Somdej Yaa Building — which still stands today.
On 25 April 2025, President Danu Chotikapanich led thirteen members and their families down for the annual visit. It fell in Songkran season.
A Welcome Unlike Bangkok
School Director Kunthalee and her team met the group at the entrance. The visit began with a ceremony at the Princess Mother's statue — a quiet moment of respect for the woman who made the school possible. Then the students performed traditional welcome dances. Young children in costume, visibly proud, giving their best.
The Songkran water-pouring ceremony followed. In Thai tradition, younger people pour water on the hands of their elders as a gesture of respect, and elders offer blessings in return. At Rotary Bangkok School, it was done with genuine warmth. Members who'd never visited before found themselves welcomed into a ceremony that made the Club's decades of involvement suddenly feel personal.
The Building That Needs Work
During the visit, Director Kunthalee walked the group through the Somdej Yaa Building — the original wooden structure from 1969. It's still in use: part art classroom, part music room, part small museum with photographs of the Club's involvement across five decades on the walls.
But it's showing its age. Foundation, flooring, windows — all need serious renovation. The school has some of its own funds, and the local temple has offered a contribution, but the structural work is beyond what those can cover.
Both the current Board and the incoming 2025–26 Board agreed in principle to fund the renovation — estimated at 400,000 to 500,000 Baht over two years — as part of the Club's 95th anniversary celebrations. Rtn Lalida Wongnirund Tepanart, an architect and Club member, did an initial structural assessment on site.
The final budget goes to the Board before construction begins.
After the School
The group had lunch at Monsoon Valley Vineyard Restaurant — a wine estate set among hills near Hua Hin, a short drive from Nong Plub. The evening ended at the Sailom Hotel.
PP Maleeratna Plumchitchom had prepared and brought individual gifts for every child at the school.
Rotary Bangkok School (โรงเรียนโรตารี่กรุงเทพ) serves nearly 800 students from kindergarten to Grade 9. The Rotary Club of Bangkok has supported the school since 1966.