Shining brighter
Special needs prom events expand into Edmond, Shawnee
Kari Holder remembers walking the halls of an Oklahoma City church filled with hundreds of excited people attending a prom for people with special needs.
She saw the smiles on the faces of the VIPs at Night to Shine OKC, and she thought about the people on the waiting list that didn't get to participate because the event was full.
Sharing that memory from last year, Holder, nursery pastor at Crossings Community Church-Edmond, said she's thrilled that her church is one of the new sites hosting Night to Shine 2020.
“Our church was open to it, and we already have a close relationship with Wings, a special needs community here,” she said. “I saw the need for more people to go and be a part of this.”
Night to Shine, a prom-night event for individuals with special needs ages 14 and older, will be Friday.
With help from Crossings-Edmond and other churches and community partners, the popular prom-night experience is being extended into more communities across the state. Last year, the experiences were held in Oklahoma City, Ardmore, Enid, El Reno, Broken Arrow/Tulsa and Stillwater.
Robert Miller, Night to Shine Oklahoma coordinator, said the events will be held again in Oklahoma City, Ardmore, Stillwater, Enid and El Reno, and churches in four new cities also will host the activities. In addition to Edmond, the new sites are in Shawnee, Eufaula and Amarillo, Texas.
Churches partner with the Tim Tebow Foundation to host the prom-night experiences on Valentine's weekend. The events are designed to be celebrations of God's love.
Each Night to Shine VIP participant is paired with a volunteer buddy who escorts them on the red carpet where a crowd of supporters cheers them on. Dressed in tuxedos, suits and sparkly prom dresses,