What: Flashback 75 at Chinquapin Spring Gala.
Where: River Oaks Country Club.
The scoop: Memories of mood rings, Pop Rocks, leisure suits and disco tunes filled the country club ballroom as more than 350 guests turned out to honor Rice University multicultural community relations director David Medina. The gala celebrated the year 1975, when Medina graduated from Chinquapin Preparatory School before embarking on a successful career as a journalist and university official.
Rice University sociologist Stephen Klineberg, founding director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, saluted Medina, as the crowd gave the honoree two standing ovations. Afterwards, each member of the Chinquapin 2017 Senior Class told the audience where he or she is headed to college. Chinquapin, a nonprofit private college-preparatory school located near Baytown that serves low-income youth from the Greater Houston area, has a remarkable success rate of its students going on to attend institutes of higher learning.
Chair Francie Willis was thrilled that the gala raised a record-breaking $400,000 to fund programs at the school that she has supported for over 20 years. More than $45,000 was raised within five minutes from guests who raised paddles to donate and received mood rings that lit up the room.
Who: KPRC Channel 2's Kambrel Marshall, who emceed the dinner, Chinquapin director Laura Henry, Chinhui and Eddie Allen, Peter Boudreaux, Ann and George McDaniel, Mike Willis, Blanca Medina, Pattie and David Tomaszek, Theresa and Evans Atwell, Warner Roberts, Charity Yarborough, Haley and Barrett Webster, and Chinquapin development director Marilu Garza.
Guests were in a disco mood at the Chinquapin Preparatory School Flashback 75 Gala.
