Jayden and I went to Des Moines to hep with the Night to Shine. Life 107.1 radio christian radio station had been promoting the event on the radio. I looked it up online and watched a video and knew I wanted to take part in it. The Tim Tebow foundation started and sponsors the event. Tim Tebow is a famous chrisitan football player. The Night to Shine event is a prom put on for special needs kids. A night to make them feel special and important. When I looked up the date, I realized we would be gone on our trip. I did however find a night in which we could help all the girls pick out prom dresses. That is how we came to help. Valley church was hosting the event and most of the helpers were church members. We were assigned our 3 dressing rooms for the night in which we would help the girls find dresses in their size and help them in any way needed. I assumed it would be all high school age, but that was not the case. Most of the ladies that came had a tint of gray hair and only a few were high school age. They were special needs, most were down syndrome, some wheel chair bound or could not communicate. Most needed help getting in and out of dresses. Most were short and needed larger sizes and were shaped round and hard to fit. It was challenging to say the least. The volunteer seamstress’ had by far the biggest and hardest job of all! I commend them for all the work they will do. I guess each of them had a dozen or more dresses to alter. Many required adding straps, hemming extremely long dresses, and taking in at the bust and letting out at the waist. The ladies were excited when they found a dress that fit. They were so easy to please. If it fit it was the dress for them.
As far as I knew. Stacey’s was just the name of the store. I then realized Stacey is the owner and amazing if you ask me. I didn’t know who she was until we were leaving. Stacey donated over 100 of her own dresses from the store, new with tags on. I saw the price tags on many of these dresses. They were not plain outdated dresses. They were beautiful, shimmering with beauty. A handful of others were second hand and donated. I watched Stacey share Jesus with one of the gals and gush about how excited she was to be heading to a missions trip. She explained how excited she was to share Jesus on her trip. Later I saw her put her arm around an emotional lady that was shy in her dress standing in the mirror. Stacey gave her a hug and kissed her head and explained how she personally designed that dress. Come to find out she designs numerous dresses each year. I also learned she is a mom and has several kids. I also heard her quietly whisper to one of the coordinators that if the volunteer seamstress’ get overwhelmed she would gladly clear the day for two of her seamstress’ to take a day and help. She is also very kind and outgoing. Her personality shines. A Godly woman that is seen and awesome on so many levels.! She will get my business when shopping for formal wear.
I am glad Jayden agreed to help with me. I think it was a rewarding time for both of us. I tried to get our connection group mom's to all go down together, but they were all busy. Jayden and I went out to eat before heading home. We talked about the gals we helped and the smiles and excitement that they had when they stood in the mirror admiring themselves all sparkly and shiny.
I am glad Jayden agreed to help with me. I think it was a rewarding time for both of us. I tried to get our connection group mom's to all go down together, but they were all busy. Jayden and I went out to eat before heading home. We talked about the gals we helped and the smiles and excitement that they had when they stood in the mirror admiring themselves all sparkly and shiny.
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