Don't Call Me Ma'am!: Birthday Wishes

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Birthday Wishes

In my EBay adventures I happened across a great organization www.birthdaywishes.org. As a seller you have the ability to donate some or all of your profits to a organization of your choice, and I thought this was a great idea. I was looking specifically for a local group to benefit, and this is when I found Birthday Wishes. Birthday Wishes was founded in Newton,MA in November of 2002 by Lisa Vasiloff, Karen Yahara, and Carol Zwanger when the three women started volunteering at homeless shelters, and noticed that children's birthday's came and went without recognition. Birthday parties, something you & I take for granted and often grumble about having to plan, are a luxury to the homeless shelters and families that live there.

Having taught preschool, worked in after school programs, and run various birthday celebrations in the past, I've always enjoyed ambience of the celebration. It is my opinion that a birthday is part of your identity, and something that should be a staple in your childhood. You never really appreciate something as simple as a birthday cake and a song sung off key until you expierience situations were it doesn't exist. When you emmerse your self in that situation its something that hits you in the gut, and definatly pulls at your heart strings.

My first birthday party was tough, because as I arrived at the transition housing, it honestly looked like a crack motel, and couldn't believe that people, never mind children, lived here. It was one step above being homeless, between the very outdated appliances, the smell, and just over all atmosphere I was saddened to know that people lived like this. Its easy to judge families in that situation. I'll be honest, when I saw a new mom holding a baby my daughters age, in nothing but a jean jacket and diaper on that cold September night, I was pissed and heart broken at the same time. I was pissed because I was thinking to myself "why is the baby out here dressed like that!" and heart broken because I knew that she probably couldn't help her situation and I could never imagine bringing my family up that way, even though she could be you or I in a heart beat.

It really is an amazing feeling to watch these kids get excited over gifts, because they truly appreciated everything given to them. These kids were beside themselves over things like pajama's, back packs and lunch boxes, items some kids would turn their nose up at. For the first birthday party we were able to get a moonwalk donated, and the kids went bats for it. They bounced until it got dark and the mosquitos came out to feed, and came in to the communal kitchen for cake and gifts. The second party I volunteered at was in the Angel House in Hyannis. The Angel House is a shelter that helps reunite families recovering from substance abuse and traumas of homelessness. We were fortuneate to have a DJ donate his services, he played all kinds of games with the kids, provided a bubble machiene and dance instruction.The electric slide was painful for me, hillarious to them. After we were all successfully covered in bubble soap, feasted on my mosquitos and handed out prizes from the limbo contest, we made our way into the main house for the long awaited cake and gifts. After cleaning up the cake plates, spilled capri suns and melted hoodsie cups, one of the birthday boys came up and gave us a hug and a high five. His mom said he had the best day ever. It was totally worth the incessent scratching from bug bites that followed.

All the parents were so grateful, and were great to talk to. Many would probably be hard pressed to talk to these people, as human nature, forming an opinion about their situation. Naturally you want to ask "how did you get here?". I don't think many of them know, nor do I, and a lot of times people in this situation do not know how to help themselves. Thankfully, there are people out there who do, and I feel priveledged help out in something as simple as giving their child a birthday party.