What is Night to Shine?
Tim Tebow Foundation's annual Night to Shine event is an unforgettable prom night experience, centered on God's love, for people with special needs across the globe.
Local churches host the prom where guests dress up, walk the red carpet, and are celebrated and honored by loved ones and the community. Every guest is crowned a King and Queen of the prom and celebrated for exactly who God made them to be!
About Night to Shine Haiti:
For the past seven years, myLIFEspeaks has hosted the Haiti Night to Shine. On average, around 80 guests attend each year from all across Haiti! We are so proud and honored to partner with TTF each year to put on this amazing event for individuals with special needs in Haiti to be honored and celebrated.
Especially in Haiti’s culture that heavily discriminates and stigmatizes people with disabilities, Night To Shine has been an amazing way to show the inherent worth, value, and dignity of every person on a grand scale.
When we first started hosting Night to Shine, locals thought it was crazy that we were celebrating and throwing a party for people with special needs; who in Haitian culture have been deemed not only less than but even worthless and disposable. Now, years later, when we host Night To Shine in Haiti, the entire community comes out to cheer on individuals and loved ones with special needs.
This is the transformative power of God at work!
Night to Shine Haiti 2022
This year, we were looking so forward to hosting our 8th Night to Shine in Neply. However, we are saddened to share that we will not be able to host Night to Shine this year for the safety of everyone involved.
After a lot of prayer and discernment from our Night To Shine committee, they decided it was in everyone’s best interest to not host NTS this year.
Here are the reasons why:
1. The banks in Haiti are limiting withdrawals to $100 per visit due to the political and civil chaotic state of the country right now. It is already extremely difficult and dangerous for us right now to get enough money from the banks to make our Haitian payroll every month. Being limited to $100 per trip not only puts our staff going to the bank at a huge risk of kidnapping and danger but it also is not enough to allow us to purchase the food, drinks, and pay workers for the Night to Shine event.
2. February 2022 in Haiti is expected to be even more violent and unstable with it being election time. Violent political protests and manifestations are expected especially now with the current auxiliary Prime Minister’s alleged tie to the assassination of President Jovenel Moise back in July. We do not want to put our Haitian staff and volunteers at risk by having them go back and forth to the market to get food and supplies for Night To Shine and risking them getting robbed, hurt, kidnapped, or all of the above.
3. Lastly, there is a rise in contagious illnesses in Neply and Haiti right now; expected to likely be a rise in covid cases. We don’t have the ability to participate in Night To Shine’s virtual option, Shine Thru, because we and our guests simply don’t have the internet capabilities to do so. We want to prioritize the safety of our guests, buddies, and volunteers first; many of whom are immunocompromised.
Given the combination of the above concerns, we felt that God didn’t want us to host Night To Shine this year for the safety and wellbeing of our guests, volunteers, and all involved.
Night to Shine Haiti is one of our absolute favorite days of the year. We are devastated that the current state of Haiti has led us to cancel but we do hope when/if it is safer to get all the guests together still for a special celebration at a later date.
We hope and pray that Haiti will be in a better state next year in 2023 so we can host Night to Shine again.
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