MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. \u2014 The Moundsville Event Center was packed Friday night as hundreds gathered for \u201cNight to Shine,\u201d a worldwide event that recognizes people with special needs.<\/p>\n
Organizers said 315 guests were registered, with about 45 more people on a waiting list. More than 380 volunteers took part, allowing every attendee to have a \u201cbuddy\u201d for the evening.<\/p>\n
As part of the celebration, all attendees were crowned either king or queen and announced by name onto a red-carpet runway. The event also offered hair and makeup services, shoe shines and a catered meal.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don’t know whether to cry or to smile,” coordinator Jannet Allen said. ” When you leave here tonight your mouth will just hurt from smiling so much. They change us more than we change them.”<\/p>\n
Attendees said the night was a chance to feel celebrated and have fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s my night to shine, it’s my night to bring home that tiarra, and to show that I’m a million bucks,\u201d attendee Jessica Teague said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes me feel beautiful. It makes me feel wonderful about myself,\u201d Tanya Stalaker,” said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love getting dressed up and doing my hair and makeup,\u201d Chelsea Bleafus said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m ready to party with my friends,\u201d attendee Bethany Johnson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cY\u2019all are missing out. You should be here. You\u2019re missing out, because you’re about to see some real dance moves,\u201d said attendee Desean Scott.<\/p>\n
Organizers said the event was hosted by more than 900 churches throughout all 50 states. Several other \u201cNight to Shine\u201d events were also held around the Ohio Valley, and the celebration is always held on the Friday before Valentine\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. \u2014 The Moundsville Event Center was packed Friday night as hundreds gathered for \u201cNight to Shine,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-133305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-queens","12":"tag-queens-headlines","13":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}