Central Methodist hosts ‘Night to Shine’ for special needs royalty
Published 9:18 am Tuesday, February 4, 2025
Meridian will be buzzing Friday as royalty descends upon the city. Queens and kings will trip the light fantastic via a red carpet into the “Night to Shine” event sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation and hosted by a local church.
There will be dancing. There will be paparazzi. There will be a catered meal as well as trolley and limousine rides.
However, no matter what the night will involve, it will be one to remember for those in the community who live with special needs and the supporters who love them.
The “Night to Shine,” which the foundation first kicked off in 2015, is described as “an unforgettable worldwide celebration event, centered on God’s love, honoring and valuing people with special needs,” according to the foundation’s website. Tebow is a former NFL player who now works through his Christian charitable foundations.
The special night will allow the attendees and the community of Meridian to see “the way God sees [special needs people] each and every day,” the website stated. Every year a church approved by the foundation holds this special night the Friday before Valentine’s Day to spotlight those who might otherwise be invisible any other time.
Meridian’s host church is Central United Methodist Church at 1004 23rd Ave. The church became involved with the “Night to Shine” after Central’s Sabrina Williams heard about the event and attended one in Brookhaven.
Williams, who serves as the church’s children and family ministries director, is used to planning and overseeing programming for children and special needs members, but she had never seen anything like the Tebow Foundation “Night to Shine.” She was intrigued.
“We have several special needs adults at our church,” she said, “and I had the opportunity to volunteer at the event in Brookhaven,” she said. “Afterward, I spoke with other church members and we applied in March to be a host church. We didn’t find out until September we had been approved, and we’ve been planning ever since.”
Host churches can’t just decide to part of the foundation’s program; there is rigorous research of the churches and law enforcement background checks of anyone who volunteers to help with the event. The foundation wants everyone to be safe during the event. That means all the volunteers attend training sessions to help them understand and relate to their special needs visitors.
“Night to Shine” is open to anyone living with disabilities, ages 14 and older. The complimentary event spotlights people with special needs through host churches around the world. Though each church chooses its own way to celebrate the special people in their churches, the main activities include a red carpet entrance surrounded by friendly crowd and paparazzi, hair and makeup stations, shoeshines, limousine rides, karaoke booths, gifts, a catered dinner, a Sensory Room, a Respite Room for parents and caregivers, dancing and a crowning ceremony where every guest is honored as a king or a queen.
Though Central is technically the host church, Williams said this is not specifically a church event. “This is a community event,” she said. “This is the community coming together to ensure a wonderful night for these guests.
“The community has donated time, effort and sponsorships. We have had box meals donated, vendors donate, businesses donate, people have donated their time. There have been so many in the community who have donated or discounted services. So our community is the true sponsor of this event to make sure the night is wonderful.”
That’s exactly what the Tim Tebow Foundation attempts to do with communities: To help them bring “faith, hope and love to those needing a brighter day.” Its main concern are people who are the most vulnerable (MVP) in the world.
“This will be a yearly event now,” Williams explained. “It will help with normalizing special needs people attending public events, we hope. We are sometimes taught to look away when we meet someone different. Our attempt to not make a special needs person comfortable might instead make them feel invisible. That’s a lonely existence.”
“Night to Shine” will honor both special needs guests and their caregivers. Upon arrival, caregivers are brought upstairs for their own event that will involve a steak dinner and fun activities. “The caregivers will have each to talk to about their lives,” Williams said. “A lot of times, caregivers don’t have anyone to talk to about the ups and downs of caregiving. This way, they’ll have people to talk to who understand.”
Each of the 100 special needs guests who signed up will be assigned a “buddy.” This is the person who will go through every single minute of the night with them. Assigned at arrival, the buddy will walk the special needs person down the red carpet, where community members will clap and celebrate them, an MC will tell the audience all about the guest and photographers will snap photos.
From there, guests and their buddies will make choices about what the guest wants to do next. Want to ride in the limo? Let’s go. Want to hit the dance floor? I’m game! These buddies ensure guests are safe while doing something they love, while giving caregivers – who will have a live feed to watch if they prefer – time to themselves among other caregivers.
“We have 217 community volunteers who have been working hard for this event,” Williams said. “From a core group of about 25, we’ve had the community sign on and I knew Meridian would do that. I knew Meridian’s people would care about this.
“So, Meridian, if you see a trolley or a limo go by on Friday, WAVE! Wave at them and let them know you see them.”