On Friday, February 13th, there will be a Night to Shine event in Little Hocking. WMOA spoke with Katie Wells, the event coordinator, for further details.
"Night To Shine is hosted by the Tim Tebow Foundation. It's an international event where hundreds of thousands of guests with special needs, uh, come together for a night of being crowned king and queen. It's our opportunity to include this population of folks in events and a special night that they don't typically get to experience."
She said that this night will show love and compassion towards those with special needs.
"We have a check-in station right before the hair, makeup, shoe shine. They get to get all dolled up. They will still be with their caregivers, whether it's a family member or a company. They, they travel through all these different areas of entertainment with magicians and balloon artists. They will be loved on, they'll be praised and just completely made over so they're ready to go."
Wells shares the main highlight of the night, where guests get recognized.
"They are announced on the red carpet. It's an absolutely amazing atmosphere. DJ Correct welcomes them to the dance floor. They head to stage, they get crowned, uh, king or queen. They're a gazillion photo opportunities along the way, and then they go to their dinner."
Next year, there are already plans to expand significantly, due to great interest.
"It starts at, um, St. Ambrose. So St. Ambrose. And then at Porterfield it starts Friday afternoon at 3:30, um, and it ends about 9:00 PM. We do actually already have a reservation list. We have volunteers. We have over 180 honored guests and a wait list of 25. We have over 300 volunteers, and we've already started planning for next year to make sure that we can take on even more guests."
Those who have signed up to volunteer are spread across a wide range of locations.
"It's pretty cool to recognize that we have volunteers and participants from Wood County, from Pleasant County. We have people all the way from like Caldwell, Noble County, down to Athens. Uh, we would love to grow even more and expand beyond our area, but it did initiate with Warren High School in Porterfield Baptist. But our growth every year is exponential."
This is the seventh year since Night to Shine began, and Wells has been involved since the beginning. This event will kick off at 4:00 PM in Little Hocking on Friday.
