Professional athlete Tim Tebow’s tremendous outreach to charities and organizations that help better the lives of children has been invaluable over the years, and recently, his efforts have come to fruition yet again with Night to Shine.
Night to Shine is sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation, which is committed to celebrating those with special needs. The event is a worldwide prom for those aged 14 and older with special needs, designed to create an experience where guests feel “welcomed, valued, and loved.”
Hosted in churches all over the country, honored guests get celebrity treatment, with Tebow himself standing as some guests’ date on certain occasions.
Every Friday before Valentine’s Day, Night to Shine takes place, honoring its guests and providing them with a fun-filled night. On the 2017 Night to Shine date, 375 churches from around the world hosted 75,000 honored guests, thanks to the efforts of a stunning 150,000 volunteers.
Guests are treated to hair styling, shoe shining, corsages, prom photographs, and a red carpet welcoming them to the glitzy venue. The best part? Each guest is crowned as king or queen of the night.
In Tebow’s words: “Let me tell you why you’re the king or the queen: it’s because that’s how God looks at you every single day of your life.”
The foundation hopes that through Night to Shine, “people with special needs realize that their church can be a place where they are loved and feel welcomed.”
Volunteers and parents alike line the red carpets leading into the church, taking photographs and waving at guests as they arrive in their evening attire. Tebow escorts some guests inside and responds to invitations to stand as a guest’s date whenever he can.
Recently, Judy Adams, one of his fans, invited him to her own Night to Shine event. Tebow had a travelling conflict that night that prevented his attendance, but that didn’t stop him from making it up to Judy in another special way.
Judy was invited to Tebow’s appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. After Tebow explained Night to Shine for the audience, Fallon helped him choreograph Judy’s surprise.
“You didn’t go to your prom?” Fallon asked, holding up a pink and purple corsage. “So you’ve never given a date one of these?”
Once Tebow confirmed the claim, Fallon continued.
“You do have someone you’d like to give it to tonight, someone in the audience…”
“I do,” Tebow said. “There’s actually a special girl in the audience that went to Night to Shine here in New York, and she is so amazing and so inspirational and she actually reached out to me and invited me to prom, and I was kind of flying all over the world … but we invited her mom today, and she is here, and I am here. So Judy Adams, I was wondering if maybe I could have a dance?”
With that, Tebow met Judy – to her huge surprise and to the audience’s applause – and they shared a dance on the Late Night stage, assisted musically by The Roots.
Tim Tebow’s Night to Shine has allowed countless guests the night of a lifetime, and in honoring Judy’s request and all others who have attended the event, he has honored his foundation’s mission to show each guest how much they matter.
Featured Image by Disney ABC Television Group on Flickr
Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0)
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