News

To celebrate our 10th anniversary (wow, time did fly), we celebrated with A Night to Shine Roaring 20’s Edition fundraiser. It was a glorious night – the women were stunning in their flapper style dresses, and the men were dapper in Gatsby style. Simon amazed everyone with his magic (we can’t figure out how he does that), and tarot card readers helped peer into the future. Known for our Tricky Tray and Lucky Lady, we didn’t disappoint with lots of great items donated by people and businesses in our community.

We can’t thank everyone enough for your support – and especially Doe’Rain Deane for volunteering her photography services to capture these gorgeous images, DJs Maureen and April for the wonderful music and teaching the Charleston in true 20’s fashion, and to Brother’s Pizza on 33/NJ Weddings & Events for the delicious catering (and to Beth and Joanne who were at the hall first thing in the morning to set up the tables and chairs!).

What an amazing Children’s Summer Event – 80 children from needy families in our area were our guests for lunch, crafting, music, dancing (and some singing too). The most incredible balloon characters were the hit of the day! Each child went home with a backpack filled with school supplies, a book, shoes, clothing, pajamas (Lala and Mimi’s Pajama Project) and blanket (Linus Project) to start off their school year.

Thank you to all the volunteers who made this day so special for the children (there were smiles galore and not just on the children’s faces). Special thanks to Amy and Tanya who did all the shopping and put the backpacks together (just amazing), and Denise from the Trenton Board of Education who is always advocating for the children!

Our Purple Night to Shine fundraiser on June 23rd was just magical! We hope that everyone had as much fun as we did. We want to thank everyone who attended, as well as those who could not but made a donation or bought a Tori Burch raffle ticket. Your support goes a long way in helping our community.

We also want to thank our volunteers, those who contributed their services (our wonderful photographers Malachi Matcho, DJ’s Maureen and April, desserts from Dee’s Dee-lights, Angie’s Cupcakes and Seasons 52, not to mention our home bakers), people and businesses who contributed to our Tricky Tray and Lucky Lady (they were just amazing over 120 items!), our catering Brother’s Pizza on 33/NJ Weddings & Events (they worked so hard and delivered 200% and incredibly delicious food too), our dance lesson instructor Mike Andino, and our fantastic sponsors — AW Martin Construction, Amerigroup, Investors Bank and Northfield Bank!

If you have taken any pictures and wish to share, please post them to our Shine and Inspire Facebook page! As we like to say–Make a difference in someone’s life, and it will make a difference in yours–we hope you feel as fulfilled in helping as we do!

On April 23rd Shine and Inspire was the featured non-profit at a Barnes and Noble Bookfair at the Princeton Market Fair. There were author events, including a book signing by our very own Nev March, and a craft table for the children featuring make your own hero masks and bookmarks. A portion of the day’s proceeds (including on-line orders for the week) went to Shine and Inspire so we can continue to help our community. Thank you to the volunteers and patrons that made the day a success!

We are so excited to resume our children’s event — the first since the start of the pandemic. Over 80 children joined us at the Nottingham Ballroom for an afternoon of crafts, games, entertainment, food, haircuts and keepsake photo. Each child went home with winter clothing, a blanket donated from Project Linus, pajamas donated from Lala and Mimi’s Pajama Project, Hoodies from Snipes and an item from their wish list (often a toy or more clothing).