Volunteers help make ‘A Night to Shine’ a night to remember

It was A Night to Shine for everyone. For the nearly 100,000 special needs guests attending their proms worldwide sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation. For the 655 churches across the globe who hosted the events for their local communities. And for the nearly 200,000 volunteers who made prom attendees feel like kings and queens.

And while the number of Anna’s Kindness volunteers might seem small at just nine, each person played a huge role in bringing love, joy and an endless supply of smiles to the many special needs guests attending the prom at 2|42 Community Church in Ann Arbor.

Volunteers participated in a training session the week prior and on Friday night arrived in formal dress attire, eager to make it a night to remember for all the special guests. Tim Tebow thanked volunteers remotely in a brief video address broadcast before prom goers arrived. All four 2|42 Community Church campuses (including Brighton, Saginaw and Lansing) hosted A Night to Shine for about 1,000 special needs guests.

In part of their role as hosts, Anna’s Kindness volunteers applauded and high-fived guests as they shined in the spotlight on the red carpet. Several Anna’s Kindness volunteers eagerly jumped at the opportunity to go behind the scenes to greet arriving prom goers and escort them down the red carpet.

“This is so awesome and so much fun! I loved being in the back room with everyone and seeing how excited they were. They were all having such a great time (and that was before their moment in the limelight on the red carpet and a night of dancing),” said Anna’s Kindness volunteer Hayley Marchand, a freshman at Pioneer High School. Hayley escorted several guests down the red carpet and into the auditorium transformed into a dazzling banquet hall and dance floor.

Sami Ruud also helped escort guests, pushing one down the red carpet in his wheelchair. Mentoring special needs peers is a passion of Sami’s, as she participates in the peer mentoring at Huron High School, where she is a junior. 

Siblings Lydie Roebuck, a high school freshman, and Hank Roebuck, an eighth grader at Forsythe Middle School, enjoyed every phase of the evening, including dancing with the guests of honor. “I think next year our whole family wants to volunteer!” Lydie said before the fun even began.

Joining the Roebucks were two eighth graders who have volunteered with Anna’s Kindness a number of times this school year: Slauson Middle School’s Mia Sanborn and Forsythe Middle School’s Samantha Chiang. The students were joined by parents Fran Marchand, Dennis Chiang, and Anna’s mother, Fran LeFort.

“I wanted to come because it seemed like a cool event, and it was great to help people with special needs,”  said Samantha Chiang.

#randomactsofanna

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