Story and photos by CHARLES FERNANDEZ 

TWO visually handicapped students from the Sekolah Menengah Pendidikan Khas in Setapak entertained guests at the Palm Garden Hotel Hari Raya charity open house recently.

Nur Ain Izati, 16, and Haikal Zaironen, 17, received thunderous applause from the guests, who also sang along as the duo sang popular numbers.

The duo were among 156 special invitees from the school for this Hari Raya celebrations held also in conjunction with the National Day.

Hotel manager Anthony Wee hosted the event, where guests were treated to an array of Raya offerings such as lemang, ketupat, rending, lontong, ayam masak merah, nasi tomato and an array of other mouth-watering dishes.

One of the main collaborators of the event was radio channel Traxxfm. The station’s deejays Hisham, Prajit, Mary, Coex, Gary and Otto added the extra “oomph’ to the event by playing contemporary songs to entertain the crowd. Other performers at the event were Twozhe Band and Seri Mahligai Ghazal.

Wee later went from table to table to give out duit raya to all the children.

The donations were contributions from the staff, their family members and the Palm Garden Hotel with the family of Rosly Ahmad contributing a computer to the school.

The children also received a goodie bag each from the hotel and partners, namely Nestle, X Sunz and Traxxfm while Dreamland Tours and Limousine Services provided the transportation to ferry the children to the event venue.

(Source: http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2012/9/15/central/12021602&sec=central)