Night to Shine 2017 – Special Needs Prom

This is the second year in a row that I was lucky enough to be the portrait photographer for a prom for teens and young adults with special needs in McAllen, TX. Sponsored by the Tim Tiebow Foundation and United Health, the  Night to Shine 2017  event was a collaboration between Calvary Baptist Church along with local non-profit charities including Capable Kids Foundation (my daughter is the president), AWARE-RGV, and RGV Down Syndrome Association.

The prom was a great success and the ballroom at the McAllen Convention Center was packed with hundreds of people having a wonderful time! All the planning and hard work by my daughter and the team of organizers and sponsors made this a very special evening for these young people. There were volunteer make-up artists, hair stylists and shoe shiners at the event throughout the night to bring out the beauty of each teen and young adult. You could see it in their faces as I photographed them — they felt amazing. Once again, I took the approach to provide very basic direction and let each of them decide how they wanted to pose. I wanted the final portrait to be an extension of their personalities. Here’s a small sample of the portraits of these amazing young people from this memorable evening.