Chef Pascal Olhats’ The Gray Event to Help Save Thai Elephants

Acclaimed chef and mentor to many, Orange County icon, Pascal Olhats is reaching out to the community and his many loyal fans to ask for your participation in a very special event on Sunday, October 23rd at Sherman Library & Gardens.

It’s a charity event, but probably not the usual type of charity which you may support. We all certainly have concerns about the well-being of children, women and men suffering from illness and those facing one of the many challenges in today’s society. This particular charity is about helping one of the most beautiful and sacred animals on the planet.  For too many years, elephants have been used for fighting, building, logging and even providing rides to tourists. Elephants were not put on this earth to do any of these things and I cringe at the thought of an elephant being stabbed with a hook to move forward with perhaps 2 or 3 people on their majestic arched backs which are not meant to bear this kind of weight resulting in wounds and pain.

Chef Pascal and his wife, Chris, recently went to Chiang Mai in Thailand and spent a week at The Save Elephant Foundation volunteering their time. Each day, there were over 100 people that helped care for the animals. It was a beautiful experience, and very hard work . . . but the reward and result was incredible. Lek Chailert, an amazing lady who founded The Save Elephant Foundation, began rescuing elephants one at a time. Today, she has rescued 75 elephants in Chiang Mai and cares for them at the Elephant Nature Park.  She very much needs our support as she is opening another sanctuary in a mountainous area of Thailand. She continues to work with the farmers and teaches them how to treat these animals better. Her mission is to save wild elephants and stop the killing of entire elephant families. The poachers do this as a way to steal the baby elephants and it is heart-breaking. 

Her devotion to the cause is monumental and our goal is to help Lek spread awareness about the terrible treatment and torture elephants continue to endure. Chef Pascal decided to create “The Gray Event”  to raise funds to help Lek and her team purchase more elephants (to rescue them), help provide funds for much needed medicine, and to help with the cost of operations at the sanctuaries.  When she heard about our plans for The Gray Event on October 23rd, we were thrilled when she decided to fly to California to be here with us for this important celebration of her work. 

You can expect a very special evening that will include authentic Thai Food, wine and beer, a group of wonderful seasoned musicians, young dancers from The Chino Hills Buddhist Temple and a Thai Dance Troupe from Los Angeles. The silent auction will have many wonderful prizes and we really hope that you will come and help Chef Pascal raise money and awareness about the plight of these beautful creatures.  

The great news is that the event is tax-deductible and upon reservation, The Gray Event can provide a tax ID number for your 2016 return. It promises to be a very unique and entertaining event to long remember. “Our goal is for you to experience some of the culture as we did when we were on our adventure in Thailand and we want to share it with you.” We hope that you can join us for a memorable evening, you may purchase your tickets or make a donation at:  www.thegrayevent.com