On No­vem­ber 1, the Rapid­fire Kidz Foun­da­tion held its An­nu­al Gala Din­ner at Achie­vor’s Ban­quet Hall in San Fer­nan­do.

The sold-out event, themed “Juras­sic,” at­tract­ed politi­cians, busi­ness lead­ers, and so­cialites, all dressed in their finest gowns, dress­es, and suits, to sup­port one of the coun­try’s lead­ing char­i­ties.

Guests in­clud­ed Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath, Health Min­is­ter Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe, Jus­tice Min­is­ter De­vesh Ma­haraj, Op­po­si­tion MP Bri­an Man­ning, for­mer ed­u­ca­tion min­is­ter Hazel Man­ning, for­mer min­is­ter Win­ston Dook­er­an, and for­mer MPs Rush­ton Paray, Jayan­ti Lutch­me­di­al, and psy­chi­a­trist Dr Var­ma Deyals­ingh.

En­ter­tain­ment be­gan with Joel John per­form­ing, as guests en­joyed a sump­tu­ous din­ner spon­sored by Al­lied Home Cen­tre.

Af­ter din­ner, MCs Shelly Dass and Fazeer Ro­jan raised the en­er­gy with wit­ty jokes and quips. Ad­di­tion­al per­for­mances in­clud­ed the Shiv Shak­ti Dance Com­pa­ny, opera singer Mar­vin Smith, and vi­o­lin­ist David Frank.

The high­light of the evening was “Rapid­fire’s Top Su­per­mod­el,” host­ed by RKF pres­i­dent Kevin Rati­ram and Dass. Au­di­ence mem­bers were ran­dom­ly called on­stage to “mod­el,” with Rati­ram pro­vid­ing hu­mor­ous com­men­tary. Laugh­ter and cheers filled the hall, and ul­ti­mate­ly, Min­is­ter De­vesh Ma­haraj emerged vic­to­ri­ous, win­ning a sash, a cham­pagne buck­et, and brag­ging rights.

The ex­cite­ment con­tin­ued with a Dutch auc­tion host­ed by Rati­ram and Ro­jan, fea­tur­ing a framed au­then­tic 100-mil­lion-year-old di­nosaur tooth and a 20-mil­lion-year-old Mega­lodon shark tooth. Bids start­ed at $100, and over 21 min­utes, guests en­thu­si­as­ti­cal­ly com­pet­ed, plac­ing 278 bids and rais­ing $27,800 for the Foun­da­tion. Giselle Pagotte emerged as the win­ning bid­der.

When the for­mal din­ner con­clud­ed at 11 pm, the par­ty kicked off. Guests danced for two hours as Dad­dy Chi­nee per­formed a live­ly mix of so­ca, parang, and 80s hits.

Many at­ten­dees de­clared the gala the top so­cial event of the year in south­ern Trinidad and are al­ready look­ing for­ward to next year’s din­ner.