PARSIPPANY — One of New Jersey’s fastest growing Christian churches, Liquid Church, has once again been selected to host Night To Shine sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation, an unforgettable prom night experience designed especially for teens and adults ages 14+ with special needs. New this year, Liquid Church is turning the special event into New Jersey’s largest Night To Shine prom, with 500 guests and 1000 volunteers gathered under one roof – the church’s brand-new Broadcast Campus in Parsippany. The event will be held on Friday, February 9. Beauty Bar from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  Main Event from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Guests at Night To Shine will receive the VIP treatment, with a red carpet prom entrance and friendly paparazzi snapping their photo. Once inside, guests will visit stations for shoe shining, corsages and boutonnieres, limo rides, and games before moving on to the main event – dancing! The highlight of the evening will be the crowning ceremony, where each Night To Shine guest is crowned a prom king or queen.

Also new in 2018, Liquid Church is hosting an All-Day Beauty Bar with free hair and makeup stations for guests and their caregivers to help them get prom-ready before the big event. Liquid Church is expecting over 500 prom guests to attend, and 1,000 Liquid Church volunteers will be on hand to create this special event, including 500 “buddies,” who will serve as personal hosts for each and every prom guest.

“It’s truly our privilege and passion to serve families with special needs. We want our honored guests to feel supported as they engage with their peers, to feel a sense of belonging, and to recognize their God-given potential. Hosting Night To Shine is an incredible way that we do this at Liquid Church,” said Tim Lucas, lead pastor and founder of Liquid Church. “We know that New Jersey has the highest rate of Autism in the nation. The need here is tremendous, and so we’re not only hosting this event for the third year in a row, but in 2018 we’re turning it into one of New Jersey’s biggest parties – gathering more guests and volunteers in one location than ever before!”

Worldwide, 375 churches honored more than 75,000 kings and queens of the prom in 2017 with the help of 150,000 volunteers across 50 states and 11 counties, showing tremendous growth since Night To Shine launched in 2015 with 44 host churches, 7,000 guests and the help of 15,000 volunteers. Night To Shine 2018 promises to be the biggest event yet, with over 500 locations already signed up to participate around the world.
“Night to Shine is my favorite night of the year! It’s also a favorite night for thousands and thousands of kings and queens all over the world that we crown at the end of this prom. Every town, every village, every state, and every country needs to host a Night to Shine for their special needs community. It’s a time in which people can work together and be a part of something significant and life-changing – and be blessed in the process. It’s about being a part of one team, God’s team,” said Tim Tebow, founder of the Tim Tebow Foundation.

For additional information on Night to Shine hosted by Liquid Church in Parsippany click here.

For more information on the worldwide movement of Night to Shine, sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation click here.

Liquid Church is one of New Jersey’s fastest-growing Christian churches. Officially launched in 2007 by Lead Pastor Tim Lucas, the church’s vision and mission is to “Saturate the State with the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” with six campuses in Essex, Middlesex, Morris, Somerset, and Union Counties. Each week, over 4,000 people experience Liquid Church’s worship services in New Jersey and around the globe through Church Online. As part of its global outreach, Liquid provides clean drinking water to the poorest of the poor, with dozens of completed wells in several countries including El Salvador and Nicaragua – and most recently, Rwanda! Liquid Church’s innovative approaches to outreach and ministry have been spotlighted by CNN, FOX News, and The Today Show. For more information click here.

The Tim Tebow Foundation exists to bring Faith, Hope and Love to those needing a brighter day in their darkest hour of need. That mission is being fulfilled every day through the foundation’s seven areas of outreach, including W15H, Timmy’s Playrooms, Orphan Care, Adoption Aid, the Tebow CURE Hospital, Team Tebow and Night to Shine. For more information on the Tim Tebow Foundation click here.

PARSIPPANY — Montville resident Marc Demetriou held a book launch on Wednesday, January 31, at The Knoll Country Club West. He presented his new book “Lessons From My Grandfather; Wisdom for Success in Business and Life” which offers an inspirational and actionable roadmap for building both business and personal success, based on key principles articulated by Marc’s grandfather, Charlie.

It is never the wrong time to make your dreams come true­ no matter how old or how young; how rich or how poor; or where you come from. Marc Demetriou, one of America’s top mortgage experts, learned early on in life how to take con­trol of life rather than let life control him, thanks to the lessons of wisdom passed on by his grandfather, Haralambos “Charlie” Pistis, the archetypical self-made immigrant who left Cyprus as a teenager and lived the American Dream with personal success and financial fortune.

Just a little over ten years after Charlie’s death in Novem­ber 2006, Demetriou has penned a moving book, Lessons From My Grandfather; Wisdom for Success in Business and Life, to share Charlie’s 15 ageless principles for success that Demetriou feels carefully guided his grandfather’s journey to fulfilment.

“I have to share the gifts and lessons of my grandfather. I wrote the book to inspire people. I believe if they read the book and understand it, they will be able to use it to truly succeed. His story is compelling and timeless,” Demetriou says.

The final product is a blueprint for personal and financial success, providing tools of both clarity and vision to help you recognize your unique talents and reach goals in life and busi­ness, according to Demetriou. And Charlie’s story is indeed a compelling one. He left his native Cyprus at age 16-with nothing but a bag full of dreams, courage, wit and the desire to succeed-first going to Greece and then to London. He arrived in New York City passing through Ellis Island, just weeks after the Black Tuesday Wall Street Crash.

Though this marked the beginning of the Great Depression for his new country, this also marked the beginning of Charlie’s journey toward fulfillment in his personal and pro­fessional life. As if the ailing economy was not tough enough, Charlie faced other struggles too. He didn’t have a high school educa­tion. He had no family here.

But Charlie was intent on making it and took any job he could find. He shined shoes to start, moving on to become a bus boy and eventually a waiter. Then he got a job at the Zeta Psi Club which marked a turning point for him. He eventually worked his way up to managing the club and enjoyed the opportunity to network and build working re­lationships with many business people. The Zeta Psi job led to another great opportunity as one of the managers of the West Side Tennis Club in Flushing, Queens.

Despite hardship and challenges of life, Charlie managed to beat all odds and ultimately retired at the age of 60 as a millionaire. He enjoyed an amazing 37 more years with friends and family until he passed at the age of 97.

Many friends, family, supporters, clients joined Demetriou at The Knoll Country Club West to celebrate his success with the book.

“I have known Marc for many years. He is the consummate professional and one of the best networkers I have ever met. I am glad he was able to write this book to share how his Grandfather made a such a great impact on his life both personal and professional,” said Harvey Topitz.

“We can all learn from our fathers and grandfathers…if we listen. Marc has spent the time to listen, absorb and share the wisdom of his grandfather, a truly self-made man, in a way like no other. Marc’s book captures not only the optimistic, entrepreneurial spirit of Charlie and his generation, but more importantly serves as a guide to the young and old how to succeed in business and life with honor and principles,” said Brian Spector, Esq.

Also joining the celebration was Frantz Pierre-Louis. Frantz. Frantz Pierre-Louis played college basketball at Wagner College in Staten Island, New York and also spent time in the NBA with the Boston Celtics.

Caryl Cozin said “The passion with which Marc approaches business and life was never so evident as this evening.  What a wonderful tribute to a grandfather that cultivated his enthusiasm & resulting success.”

Marc Demetriou is a top-rated speaker at accounting and attorney seminars as well as at other financial services firms and mortgage conferences throughout the greater New York City area and beyond.

As an authority on real estate and finance, Marc has been featured in articles in The Huffington Post, The New York Times, Reuters, The National Herald, Suburban Trends, Meadowlands USA Magazine, Top Agent Magazine, and The National Mortgage Professional Magazine. 

Marc, a branch manager with Residential Home Funding Corp., is consistently ranked among the top one percent of loan originators in the country by Scotsman’s Guide, Mortgage Executive Magazine and The National Mortgage Professional Magazine.

For more information on “Lessons From My Grandfather; Wisdom for Success in Business and Life,” click here.