As Woolmarket Baptist celebrates Night to Shine, ‘the more inclusive the better’

On the Friday before Valentine’s Day, Woolmarket Baptist Church joined hundreds of communities across the world to host Night to Shine, a prom supported by the Tim Tebow Foundation that celebrates and honors people with disabilities.

Attendees with disabilities, ages 14 and older, were guests of honor and were crowned as a king or queen at the end of the night. Hosting 244 guests of honor this year, Woolmarket is home to the only Night to Shine in Mississippi south of Hattiesburg.

The event included a red carpet entrance for guests of honor, limousine rides, a photo booth, stations for hair and makeup, face painting and a dance floor where guests are crowned at the end of the night.

Adrian Holland was among those at Woolmarket Baptist Church who helped start hosting Night to Shine and felt that there was not a ministry for children with disabilities. “We have special needs children at our church, and there wasn’t really a ministry for that community here on the Gulf Coast, and we were going to put on our own special needs prom at the church,” Holland said.

It was soon after that the Tim Tebow Foundation reached out to offer grant funding to turn the prom into the church’s first Night to Shine in 2017.

Initially starting with 76 guests of honor in Night to Shine’s inaugural year at Woolmarket Baptist Church, the prom has grown every year and now brings in 244 guests of honor and 440 volunteers.

For Holland, who has helped coordinate Night to Shine in Woolmarket since it started, the growing support from volunteers and local sponsors over the years has been “amazing.”

“We have so many volunteers come out of our local high schools, and the impact it has on our teenage volunteers lasts for years and years to come,” Holland said.

Stacie Allen has brought her daughter Courtnie to Night to Shine ever since it started, returning every year thanks to the event’s inclusivity. “The more inclusive, the better, and the more events that they can have that include people like Courtnie and her friends, the better it is for them,” Allen said. “They need a place that they can meet up with their friends and hang out with their friends just like all the other kids do.”

For Courtnie Allen, having the community rally together to put on an event for people like her to be together and have a prom experience is “really special.”

Some of the most memorable parts of past proms for Courtnie Allen were walking the red carpet with her boyfriend, singing karaoke and being crowned queen at the end of the night. “I think it’s amazing that the community comes together to support those with special needs and to make a night so special and memorable for them,” Stacie Allen said.

One of those memorable moments was seen this year as Anthony Payne proposed to Mae Davis after the two sang karaoke together early in the evening.

As much of an impact as Night to Shine has on its guests of honor, it leaves an equally lasting impact on its volunteers. “It just gives me a sense of purpose,” Holland said. “It lets me dote on other people that sometimes don’t get the attention that they should get.”

As Night to Shine continues to grow at Woolmarket Baptist Church, Holland’s goal is that the event will outgrow itself and inspire other ministries to host their own proms to create more inclusive spaces for people with disabilities. “We do hope to outgrow our space at some point and that there will be other host churches in the area as well,” Holland said. “That’s always been the goal, to serve as many people as we possibly can.”