A national event called “Night to Shine” sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation was hosted all over the country on Valentine’s Day weekend, and Reset attendee Heather Wanninger helped coordinate part of the event, namely the photo booth and the other volunteer photographers. She also brought along her son John for the night to help fun the photo booth while she photographed candids around the dance floor and dinner area. We asked her to share about the experience, the organization itself, and how other people can get involved. From Heather:
The event we photographed at my home church was a worldwide event through the Tim Tebow Foundation. The foundation and all of the outreach initiatives were primarily created to show God’s love to children around the world.
Night to Shine is an event created by Tim Tebow Foundation to celebrate people with special needs by creating a prom that is held at churches around the world on the same evening. The number of people involved in this one-night event is astounding. On one night, February 10, 2017, 375 churches from around the world hosted Night to Shine for 75,000 honored guests through the support of 150,000 volunteers!
I’m so thankful First Christian Church, my home church, wanted to host this event and was eager to get involved. In addition to photographing the event with several other local photographers, I also worked with local florists to get some boutonnieres’ and corsages donated and worked with Mahomet-Seymour High School ag department to create the remaining corsages and bouts we needed. Julie Blunier of jBlu Design was willing to come to the school to teach the high school students how to make them and then in two days they made almost 70 corsages and bouts.
If the event is held locally again next year (or in your area!), volunteers are needed in a variety of capacities from doing hair and make-up, being a buddy or paparazzi, assisting with set-up, tear down, and much more.
I enjoy finding ways to donate my time, money and resources because all blessings are from God and should be shared. The best part of volunteering is always GETTING so much more than I GIVE. It’s true. I volunteer and donate to those less fortunate, or groups of individuals that are worth celebrating, organizations that have a great mission and passion, etc because it’s something I enjoy doing. I was smiling from ear to ear the entire evening while photographing the Night to Shine event. When GIVING of my time, it turns out I GET so much more in return. I leave with a heart that overflows, a face that hurts from smiling so much, an ability to see things from a new perspective, and a soul rejuvenated by sharing what God has given to me.
Donating my time to photograph such event is always enjoyable but it’s even sweeter when I have the opportunity to work with fellow creatives in the industry. It’s such a blessing to have so many friends in the photography community eager to support one another in our own businesses and volunteer side by side.
Heather runs Sweet Lemonade Photography and co-owns Sweet Darling Weddings. She can be found on Facebook & Instagram. Also participating in the event were photographers Kristin Darling, Rebekah Albaugh, Holly Birch Smith, Blaine Wright, Ron Lavaire, and filmmaker Jeremiah Cox.
Thanks so much for sharing with us about this awesome event, Heather!!
Comments +