{"id":134683,"date":"2026-02-15T22:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T22:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/134683\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T22:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T22:28:08","slug":"a-night-to-shine-celebrated-in-ne-ohio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/134683\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A Night to Shine\u2019 celebrated in NE Ohio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Broadview Heights, Ohio <\/a>(WJW) \u2013 What started as an idea has grown into a grassroots movement that is sweeping the globe.<\/p>\n

On Friday night, \u201cA Night to Shine\u201d celebrations were held at churches across the world. It is the mega event of the year for people with special needs and their families and caregivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I know is going to happen is that I\u2019m going to have a good time with my friends, where I feel welcome,\u201d Night to Shine VIP Adam Philipps, who attended a celebration held at Cuyahoga Valley Church in Broadview Heights, told FOX 8.<\/p>\n

A Night to Shine was created by the Tim Tebow Foundation as the ultimate prom experience for very special people, complete with a red carpet for a grand entrance for each VIP.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want them to feel like the kings and queens they are, and we want them to know that we love them and we love spending time with them,\u201d said Denise Petek, who is the Children\u2019s Minister at Cuyahoga Valley Church.<\/p>\n

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The joyous celebration of life is held each year the Friday before Valentine\u2019s Day, at houses of worship around the world.<\/p>\n

The dedicated team at Bright Buddies Adult Day Care in South Euclid said their \u201cbuddies\u201d Steve and Kyle circled A Night to Shine on their calendars as soon as they heard about all the fun everyone was having.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause for one, they love to go out, they love to have a good time, they love to dress up and they love to socialize,\u201d Bright Buddies caregiver Egypt Kamara said.<\/p>\n

Mona Loehr is the best friend and caregiver of 36-year-old Vicky Rogers and said they have been looking forward to Vicky\u2019s first Night to Shine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came home and I said, \u2018they have Tim Tebow\u2019s Night to Shine at CVC, you\u2019re going to love it, it\u2019s so exciting.\u2019 We went on the website, we saw the photos,\u201d said Mona.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful,\u201d Vicky said, beaming. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing, I love it, it\u2019s exciting, I\u2019ve never been to a prom before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since being launched more than a decade ago, Night to Shine has grown by leaps and bounds.<\/p>\n

This year, the event was being celebrated at nearly a thousand churches in 74 countries around the world.<\/p>\n

The driving force behind the movement is an army of volunteers, committed to making the event a memorable experience.<\/p>\n

Paul and Daisy Park had a very personal reason to volunteer.<\/p>\n

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They want to preserve the ideals of the annual celebration so that one day, their ten-year-old son can have his own Night to Shine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the privilege of having our son, who has Down syndrome and you know, prior to that, I had limited experience with people with disabilities so this is personal to us. God loves everyone,\u201d said Paul Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want every one of them to feel truly like kings and queens and that this is the best night that they\u2019re having. We want them to feel so loved,\u201d\u00a0Daisy Park added.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Broadview Heights, Ohio (WJW) \u2013 What started as an idea has grown into a grassroots movement that is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[57261,57259,9,24,63,1758,122,124,123,57260],"class_list":{"0":"post-134683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-broadview-heights","9":"tag-cuyahoga-valley-church","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-ohio","14":"tag-queens","15":"tag-queens-headlines","16":"tag-queens-news","17":"tag-tim-tebow-foundation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134683","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=134683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}