A Night to Shine with Blue Summit Baptist Church

Smiles galore were abounding on Feb. 12th, 2016 for Blue Summit Baptist Church (BSBC) members as well as
a multitude of volunteers and an amazing group of special people. This was the night that BSBC partnered with the Tim Tebow Foundation to host “Night To Shine” a Prom event for those in and around the Kansas City area with special needs.

The Tebow Foundation says; “Night to Shine celebrates the uniqueness of each individual guest by providing an unforgettable night where they are welcomed, valued and loved. Night to Shine shares the joy that is found in God’s love for each and every person.”

Every guest of Night to Shine enters this complimentary event on a red carpet to a cheering crowd and friendly paparazzi. Once inside, guests receive the royal treatment including hair and makeup stations along with shoe shining, corsages and boutonnieres, a karaoke room and, of course, dancing! The highlight of the night comes when every one of the Night to Shine guests or as we like to call them, our VIPs (Very Inspiring People) is crowned as a king or queen of the prom.

This year, 200 host churches in 48 States and 7 countries participated in the 2nd Annual Night to Shine event. Blue Summit BC had only 32 days to put on this event! We quickly scrambled to find a venue that could hold at least 300 people and wheelchair/handicap accessible. Charles Beeghley, the pastor of BSBC wanted to have a central location in Kansas City. He approached the city of Kansas City Park and Recs who agreed to partner in the event, allowing us to use the Brush Creek Community Center.

With the use of social media, we were able to pull this off in a moment’s notice, connecting with volunteers and professionals who donated much of their time. Likewise we connected with group homes and individuals we knew of that had a special needs person and began inviting them to the event. We had people attending from age 12 to 65!

The amazing part was the amount of people that volunteered not only their time, but talent. Blue Summit Baptist Church is a replant with a congregation size of 25, yet we had more than 250 volunteers, from many different churches participate.

It was amazing watching the guests transform into a totally different person by the end of the night. One caregiver who came with a group from a local group home commented how she had never seen one of her ladies even smile in the 9 years she had worked in the group home. She said she always just sat in her wheelchair with her head down all the time. This night however was magical for her as she began lifting her head up once we put her corsage on her and gave her some pearls.

BSBC is busy planning next year’s event which will be held on February 10, 2017. We will need a lot of volunteers to make this a special night. We would like to invite area churches who have a special People’s Ministry to contact BSBC about participating next year. This year we only had 55 VIPs, but next year we would like to see at least 150 VIPs who will experience the love of God like never before. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Tammy Beeghley at [email protected]. To see photos of that awesome night, please feel free to visit their Facebook page www.facebook.com/bluesummitBC.