When Steffi told me that she wanted to start a nonprofit called Birthdays For All, a lightbulb turned on in my head. She didn’t really need to say much else, because I was already sold.
My first thought was a flashback to our daughter Olivia’s birthday parties over the years. We always wanted her to feel like she was the most important, special, and loved girl in the world on her birthday. We would put plenty of time and effort into making it happen. So the idea of Birthdays For All resonated with me. Why can’t all kids feel the same on their birthdays? The truth is that there are a lot of kids who aren’t as fortunate.
There are too many kids in Foster Care that don’t get any attention whatsoever on their birthday. Could Birthdays For All help solve that problem?
That was a question we were both willing to sink in a lot of time to answer. So we both got to work. Steffi handled the business administration during the day, while I worked on the user experience, branding and web design at night. We setup a meeting with the South Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS), and found that they were just as excited as we were about the idea and offered to help us by collecting birthday wishlists from the children.
Less than 30 days later on May 5th 2015, coincidentally on Lowcountry Giving Day and Foster Care Awareness month, we launched Birthdays For All. We started telling our friends and family on Facebook. Within a week we reached the first milestone of 100 likes. We surpassed 200 likes soon after that. We also started receiving some donations to help us get started with upcoming birthdays.
It was humbling to see so many of you share our vision and show your support. We hope that you can continue with us on this journey to brighten the lives of children on their birthday.
Photo creds: Fia Forever
Great idea – I was in a church small group that actually did this for about a year at CYDC…let me know how I can help and be part of this…
Thank you, Scott! I’d love to hear about your experience doing this. We have a Wrapping Party coming up if you’d like to join. We did our first one recently and it helped tremendously. You can read about it in our blog post here.
Steffi , I am your neighbor at 20 Meeting Street…I would like to put a check in the mail to you…what address do I mail it to!! I think the cause is great!!