On Friday February 9th, God’s Hidden Treasures hosted Night To Shine a prom for people with special needs sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation. This is a worldwide movement celebrating God’s love for people with special needs with over 90,000 guests honored in 16 countries. We were so privileged to bring this celebration to Ukraine and it was a fantastic night of joy, dancing, food, singing, and so much more. The best part, was at the end of the night, every guest was named the king or queen of the ball and given a special crown or tiara.
The night began with hair and makeup. Lillia from our office did an amazing job organizing different hair stylists from around the city to come and do free makeovers for all our female guests. One of our guests Masha Klipach spent the whole time in the makeup chair sharing that it had been her dream to have her hair and makeup done for a red carpet event. It brought smiles to all the volunteers. Following hair and makeup everyone took a limo ride to the cafe where our event was held.
At our location there was a red carpet, with fans and paparazzi waiting for the arrival of our guests. Every guest was partnered with a buddy for the night. We had amazing volunteers who helped make the night extra special. Each guest went down the red carpet to cheers and applause. From there we opened with prayer and kicked off our night of festivities. There was a big dance floor, and a huge buffet table that the guests were free to visit all night long! Throughout the night of dancing, we would take some breaks where many of our guests shared their talent by singing songs, reciting poems or even playing an instrument.
The celebration climaxed with the crowning ceremony. Romans 8 tells us we are God’s children, and because we are His children, we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. It was my privilege to announce that they were all kings and queens of the prom because that is how God sees each and every one of them. As they received their crowns, confetti dropped from above which capped off a night none of these guests will forget.
I am amazed at how God worked through this event. His love for all people shined. That love was made known to every person who walked through those doors. New friends were made, old friends were reunited. An event like this would not have been possible without a lot of help. God’s Hidden Treasures staff put in countless hours organizing and preparing for this prom. We had a volunteer chef with a huge group of kitchen volunteers from local churches who helped make all the food. We had volunteers helping kids in and out of the limos and in and out of the event hall. We had over 75 volunteers who signed up to be buddies for our guests. These were some of our former campers, who also help with our summer camps, others were volunteers from local churches as well as volunteers from the Red Cross Ukraine. In all, we had over 120 volunteers. For them, I am so grateful.
There is so much more to say about this event. I look forward to sharing more stories from the kids and volunteers themselves. Please check out our Facebook page to see even more of the photos!
It takes our staff as wells as many volunteers to make these visits happen. Above is Valeera one of our staff members and Nastya one of our volunteers getting ready to go out to make visits.
