This is the second year that the Night to Shine Prom has been held in the Outer Banks and my 2nd year DJ-ing this national event sponsored by The Tim Tebow Foundation.  When Rich Coleman with Coleman Shots Photography asked if I would offer my DJ services again this year for the Prom, without hesitation I accepted. It is extremely hard for me to tell you or explain to you how much fun and just how amazing each and every one of us(volunteers) feel on an emotional level after the Prom is over. Even though everyone volunteers, it still almost feels a little selfish to me at least. Let me try to explain. So going in to the Night to Shine, we have staff meetings to help us get organized and to ensure we provide the best time for our guests. After all, the whole reason Tim Tebow started this is to give people with special needs a Night to Shine that they deserve. In our meetings it is stressed(per the handbook) that this is NOT about any of us and if you plan on getting any personal gain from volunteering then we don’t want you as a volunteer. Which is why it feels a little selfish and why I immediately agreed to volunteer again.

Having been the DJ at the first ever OBX Night to Shine Prom the previous year (check out my first blog), I can not and will not ever forget the way I felt after that first Prom and the feeling that I actually had gained something.  And it wasn’t just the way I felt. You could literally see it and feel it pulsing and flowing throughout the room and radiating from other volunteers. It was almost like everyone was on a happy high. I felt so amazing for being a part of this selfless event. And I really think it has made me a better person and is definitely something that I will continue to practice throughout the rest of my life. It’s not always about us. Sometimes it’s important to put a smile on someone else’s face or brighten up someone else’s day and for no gain whatsoever for you. But seeing how much fun our guests at the prom had and seeing how happy they were, my heart can’t help but feel full and that’s what you could see from all of the volunteers after that night. So I feel like I actually do gain something.

There probably was a much easier and shorter way for me to get my message across but I’ve never been great at expressing my feelings out loud, so I hope you got what I was trying to convey.