Night to Shine 2020

I volunteered at Night to Shine on February 7th. C joined me. I heard about this event a few years ago and wondered if I could get involved. There is a Facebook group for parents whose kids attend our school. The organizer of the local Night to Shine asked for volunteers. The response was overwhelming. I think the largest percentage of volunteers were from CPC.

What is Night to Shine?
Night to Shine was started by Tim Tebow. It is an annual event and takes place all over the world. It is a prom like event for those with special needs who are 14 and older. The first Night to Shine event was in 2014. I looked up where events were held this year and there was one held in Taber, Alberta, where my aunt and uncle used to live. The event we volunteered at was held at City Hill Church in Kenmore.

The reason that C and I are both wearing black is that I was directed to dress in black like a hairdresser/makeup artist and C followed my lead. All of the volunteers dressed up. The guests were attired in formal wear.

C is holding shoe shine tools.

My responsibility was hair. C did shoe shining. There were also makeup stations.

I braided and curled hair for several guests. I worked alongside a lovely young lady who attends the same school as my boys. She is in 12th grade. She wasn't very familiar with Tim Tebow. Funny!

The funniest thing that happened to me was this. A young guest said she wanted her hair up so I did some braiding. She shook it out and said she wanted to do her own hair and put it up (messily) in a scrunchie. I thought that was hilarious. Good thing she didn't have one of the ladies who is professional doing her hair. I wasn't offended or hurt at all. 

There was a lot of sitting around and waiting. I think there were actually too many volunteers!

Here is a rough idea of the itinerary.

Check in
Makeup/Hair/shoe shining for the guests
Popcorn and Italian sodas for the guests
Photo booth
Red Carpet (lots of cheering for the guests)
Rides in the stretch limo
Dinner (donated by a local Italian restaurant)
Dance

Our "shift" was from 4 pm until almost 10 pm. The event ended at 9 but there was clean up as well.

There was a fashion sketch artist doing sketches of the guests and their buddies. Her business is called Drawing Blueberry. Near the end of the event I noticed that she was also doing some sketches for volunteers. I asked her to do one of C and I.

I may volunteer again next year. I think I will pick a different job. I was on my feet for a long time.
One job I could do is be a "buddy." That involved being paired with a guest (in my case it would be a female guest) and staying with them all night. The parents and caregivers get a break for the evening.

One highlight of the night was all the time that I spent with C, just chatting. I don't take those times for granted when he just wants to talk with me.



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