The volleyball team is volunteering through Beltway Park Church to give people with special needs a prom night on Friday.

Night to Shine is an event founded by the Tim Tebow Foundation that depends on the work of around 500 volunteers each year. Beltway has participated in Night to Shine since 2015. Around 800 churches across the country will be hosting the event, all on the same night. Men and women of all ages and kinds of mental or physical disabilities are eligible to sign up. Those who attend are called kings and queens. Their experience, and even wardrobe, is fully paid for by Beltway.

Players are most commonly assigned the role of being a buddy. Buddies stick by the side of a king or queen and assist them however they may need throughout the night. Buddies go with their king or queen to get their hair and make-up done, go on a limbo ride, eat dinner, sing karaoke and dance. 

Alexis Strong, an outside hitter and sophomore government major from Louisville, Kentucky, worked with a group of seven kings and queens with three of her volleyball teammates last year.

 “It was a lot of different people, a lot of personalities,” Strong said. “They were all super interesting and fun to be around.” 

Lex Smith is a teacher who has served at Beltway’s Night to Shine since 2017 and is now a leader of the administration team. Smith said that 59 organizations have volunteered at Night to Shine, as well as several individuals who attend Beltway.

 “It’s just become such a beautiful thing, which was the heart of it all along, as the entire city comes together for this event,” Smith said.

Strong said volunteering at Night to Shine is special because of the human connection factor. Services such as bagging groceries have a lot less human interaction, and she’s unable to see how her work benefits the community. Strong said it was rewarding to personally help the kings and queens and see their reactions to the fun times of the night. 

“The most wonderful part of it is the Kingdom of Heaven being on display. Watching all these people come together to give their gifts and abilities and their time,” Smith said, “To lay down themselves to celebrate another person, another person with these beautiful gifts that a lot of times get unnoticed and overlooked.”