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Happy New Year From the Beverly’s Birthdays Team!
We can hardly believe that January has come and gone! That said, it was an exciting birthday month for our organization. Winter Blizzard Jonas come and went, as did our Blizzard Birthday Bashes! We hosted 13 January Blizzard parties, each filled with winter games, crafts, balloons, cupcakes, MOE’s taco bars and most importantly: BIRTHDAY SMILES!!
PROGRAMMING:
One of our favorite January crafts was our SNOWMEN AT NIGHT salt-paint portraits. For this activity, we gathered the kids to the floor to read Caralyn and Mark Beuhner’s winter classic, SNOWMEN AT NIGHT. We wanted to get the kids’ creative juices flowing so that they could take the story back to the tables and create their very own snowmen at night. It’s always fun to see what the kids create after they are inspired by a fun story or anecdote!
Other January activities included:
- Penguin Waddle Races
- Minute to Win It Snowball Competitions
- Snowman Mummy Races
- Winter Bingo and
- Beaded Snowflake Ornament Construction.
The kids had a blast and the volunteers and program leaders had just as much fun celebrating with the kids on their special day!
VOLUNTEERING:
January was also a great month for our volunteers. We say time and time again how much our volunteers mean to our organization. January was absolutely no exception. The Shady Side Junior School hosted a huge event on Martin Luther King Junior Day in which they cycled through five volunteering stations. Each station’s activity aided us in achieving our programming goals. Activities include:
- Valentine Mason Jar Construction
- Picnic Table Painting for our office/volunteer space
- Boo-Boo Bunny Construction
- Sugar Cookie Baking and
- Treat Bag Assembly
There is something incredibly heartwarming about children wanting to help other children. It is especially rewarding when the kids are able to verbalize and understand why these projects are important. We saw a lot of positive attitudes at the Shady Side Junior School and could not be more proud and thankful for their time and contributions!
January volunteering continued at the office as well! We had several enthusiastic groups come out to help us create “Birthday in a Bags”, “Candy Towers” and more! THANK YOU to our amazing groups! We love having you around and hope you enjoy the work as much as we enjoy having you!
DELICIOUS ADDITIONS:
January also christened our new partnership with MOE’S Southwest Grill. We could not be more excited and thankful to be involved with such an incredible company. Each January party was decked out with a lavish taco bar catered by MOE’S. MOE’S also created fun Beverly-Moes Birthday Crowns that we have been gifting to the Birthday Kids at our parties. Party attendees have certainly not been shy in showing their gratitude. A few kind words can go a really long way! Thanks for the treat, MOE’S!
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
January was truly a STELLAR month. In closing, as we head into the rest of 2016, we’d like to reflect on the following quote and leave you with some food for thought:
Both Claire and Martina (Bev’s Program Managers) had eye opening experiences in January that reminded them why we do what we do as an organization. First, Claire had a girl (age 13) send in a birthday present request that asked for bottled water. She did not request Fiji or Smart Water – just plain, bottled water. Claire was so moved by this outlandish request that she decided to gift the girl with an entire Water Bottle Tower, containing only the best bottles around:
Similarly, Martina attended a party at the start of January in which she was serving pizza to the guests. A young boy came to the front of the line, politely declined the pizza, but asked if he could take a paper “Happy Birthday” Plate. Martina gave the plate to the boy but asked, out of curiosity, why he wanted the plate if he wasn’t going to eat any pizza. The boy simply replied that he wanted to save the plate for the entire week (washing it in between meals) so that he could have something to celebrate and eat off of for the whole week of his birthday. Martina could not think of a sufficient reply, but instead went back to her birthday bin and handed the boy a full pack of unopened paper birthday plates…
I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember the last time I truly cherished a bottle of water or a paper birthday plate. We wanted to share these moment because they are a nice reminder that we all have things to be thankful for. More than that, we all have talents we can share to make others smile. Help us continue to spread smiles for months to come and always remember we are ALL special and we ALL have things to be thankful for. HAPPY FEBRUARY!
