‘They are loved unconditionally’
Galt church prom helps guests with special needs find a Night to Shine
Guests in tuxedos and evening gowns were greeted by smiling faces and flashing cameras as they stepped out of limousines at Viaggio Winery and Estates in Acampo on Wednesday evening, before they strolled down the red carpet to applause and more cameras.
They had all arrived for Night to Shine, a prom experience for guests with special needs, according to Myrna Gold, who attends Horizon Community Church of Galt and helped plan the event. Although Night to Shine was developed by the Tim Tebow Foundation in 2015, this is Horizon’s first year participating, Gold added.
“There are only a few churches in Northern California that do this: One is in Modesto, and the other is in Pleasanton. We’re really the only church in the Sacramento Valley that does this event. ” Gold said.
At the end of the red carpet, a sign directed guests to a hair, makeup and shoe shine station, the ballroom, a respite room for parents and caregivers and a quiet room for guests needing a break from the bright lights, loud music and large groups of people.
In the respite room, parents and caregivers watched on a flat-screen TV as their children or adult residents danced, ate and enjoyed themselves in the ballroom. Sandra Haynes-Andrews, who runs Haynes Board and Care in Lodi, took advantage of the respite room to enjoy acoustic music and reflect on the months leading up to the event, saying that her residents could speak of little else.
“We found out about this in the first week of January. It was amazing, a whole group of volunteers called us asking us if we needed anything special. It’s been a long process of getting dresses and tuxedos, we even had volunteers come in early to help with hair and makeup. We wanted to go shopping and give them the whole prom experience,” HaynesAndrews said.
In the ballroom, Rhonda Santos, one of Haynes-Andrews’ residents, took a break from dancing with her date, Jeff Miller, one of the volunteers known as “buddies,” who accompanied the guests. Santos had been looking forward to the night for months, and smiled from ear to ear with joy as she and her friends admired their corsages.
“I was so excited, the closer it got (to the prom), the more excited I got. When the limo got here, I was so excited, this is my first time being here,” Santos said.
One hundred guests attended along with caregivers, companions and parents, according to Kevin Brown, an executive pastor at Horizon who served as co-manager along with his sister, Mindi Rold. Two hundred volunteers from Horizon, other churches and organizations and special needs teachers helped organize the event, Brown said, and Viaggio donated its entire facility for the night.
“We’ve got close to 400 people here with the guests, their buddies — the people who hang out with them — and caregivers. There’s no question that we’ll do this again. We want everyone who attends to know that they are loved unconditionally, we want to show God’s love in this moment and we want them to feel truly unique and special,” Brown said.
Rold shared the managerial duties with her brother, coordinating team leaders who organized the red carpet, press and media, the dance floor and food. Other team leaders oversaw the respite room, photography, traffic, golf carts to transport caregivers, registration, EMTs, special needs care and the quiet room. And they managed to make everything happen in three months according to Rold.
“Normally, it takes about a year to plan something like this. Luckily, we had so many great volunteers who stepped up in such a short amount of time. It’s really been a blessing to see everything come together, and for the parents as well. We have some parents who stayed and we want them to have a good rest and dinner. Not all of the parents stayed, but those that did would say that this is a great opportunity for their kids,” Rold said.
Brown, Rold and their team only had three months to plan the event because Senior Pastor Tim Stevenson of Horizon only discovered it in November. While browsing the internet, Stevenson came across an article entitled “Tim Tebow Foundation gets a Bump,” and the accompanying video describing the event.
“I watched the video, and I cried like a baby. I watched it again, cried again and the first call I made was to Viaggio. I sent them the video, they had the same reaction and we started planning before we even got approved by the Tim Tebow Foundation,” Stevenson said.
After receiving approval from the foundation, Stevenson said that Brown took on the task of managing the project and immediately started looking for volunteers. They ended up receiving more offers from volunteers than they needed, which Stevenson said is an impressive accomplishment for a volunteer organization. Although Stevenson was sad when they had to turn guests away due to capacity limitations, he has already begun planning an even bigger event for next year.
“The Tim Tebow Foundation was incredible. They helped fund this, they resourced us with other Night to Shine groups that have already done this and helped us pull it off. And I think their (Tim Tebow Foundation) concept of ‘Everyone is a king and queen, and God loves them,’ is fantastic,” Stevenson said.