While COVID-19 put many year-end celebrations in jeopardy, that didn’t stop House of Shine from hosting its with a strong turnout last Thursday.
House of Shine is a Grapevine nonprofit that organizes development programs for women and children. Their Rise and Shine workshop series involves nine months of lessons starting in September, and at the end of their program, members gather for a big celebration usually held in May.
But House of Shine’s regular plans came to a grinding halt in March due to social distancing measures. While their remaining lessons were simple enough to transition online, founder and executive director Claudia Beeny began brainstorming of other ways that they might be able to do their year-end celebration that didn’t involve Zoom or Google Hangouts.
“I knew we could do better,” Claudia says. “We’ve all been kind of cooped up for seven or eight weeks. I knew you couldn’t celebrate community while everybody is in their own space and there is no interaction."
So they reformatted their celebration into a drive-thru gathering on Thursday, May 7, where over 40 cars rode up to the REC of Grapevine for the day's festivities. Participants tuned into the radio channel to hear Claudia’s keynote speech, extenders were used to hand attendants goodies and prizes and they played games in their vehicles such as Honk If, Simon Says and a car scavenger hunt.
While the situation wasn’t preferential, Claudia was grateful that House of Shine was able to save the celebration and do something fun and special for their members.
“It was actually very cool," Claudia expresses. “We made the most out of a situation that is less than ideal, but constraints can manifest creativity. While we never would have normally done it this way, it was a really fun break from our normal.”
Claudia says the workshop series is available to all women and encourages them to join in the fall. To learn more about House of Shine, visit HouseOfShine.com.