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Elf December

Elf December

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What a year 2017 turned out to be! We expanded our reach to new agencies in Pittsburgh, added additional staff members to our Beverly’s Birthdays family, received national exposure through numerous different media projects (including an NBC Nightly News spotlight!), and most importantly, we helped celebrate a bunch of deserving kids and let them know that they matter!

December was a huge donation drive month for us. Numerous organizations collected toys and party supplies on our behalf.

  • Negative: Our toy shop was looking barren heading into the holiday season. Think toy shop drought!IMG_3110
  • Positive: The shelves were so empty because we provided more presents last year than any other year before! As a sneak peak of our impact this past year, in 2016 we celebrated the births of 250 babies through our Itty Bitty Birthday Cheer program. In 2017 we celebrated 442 newborn babies!!

We not only achieved all of our 2017 programmatic goals, we blew them out of the water. Plus, thanks to these collections, our toy stock has been replenished enabling us to continue to provide awesome presents to our deserving kids!   This was possible all because of your support. Look out for our annual report in the near future to learn more about how many people we serviced and in what ways.

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CCChampion Camden and the presents he wrapped for Beverly’s Birthdays along with the birthday card he hand-made.

One of our favorite projects that happened throughout November and December was the Miracle on Smithfield Street campaign. We teamed up with CCChampions for a holiday donation drive. CCChampions is another local nonprofit that matches kids with cancer with an inspirational role model who supports them through all the transitions of the cancer journey. With support from The Grable Foundation, we invited downtown businesses to donate to our cause. The CCChampion kids then used the donations to purchase and wrap gifts for our Beverly’s Birthdays kids. We love seeing kids helping other kids and feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to work with two other amazing organizations! A special thanks to the Grable Foundation and the Burke Foundations for matching donations.

In other exciting news, we received our first shipment from Delivering Good. Throughout 2018, Delivering Good will provide us with a plethora of in-kind donations of an assortment of different products. In our first shipment, we received 36 pallets of legos… 36 PALLETS!! If this is any indication, we cannot wait to see what is in store in the coming year,

Birthday Party Activities

Elf Hats

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In December we got to design our own elf hats! This was an awesome creative outlet that allowed us to express our own unique style.

Supplies:

Everyone received a foam hat cut-out, fastener, and an assortment of stickers. They then got to decorate however they wanted! Some kids chose to write their name while others completely covered their hats with no foam showing through.

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We also got to make these super cute elf ornaments. Upon completing his, one of our birthday boys, Jay, informed us he would be hanging his on his bedroom doorknob.

Supplies:

The kids got to choose which elf they wanted to make. They then put together their elf, and wrote their name on the back with the Sharpie so everyone knew who’s elf belonged to who.

Additional Activities

Other News

  • Big thanks to our Champions of Cheer who created and implemented awesome projects to benefit Beverly’s Birthdays. We look forward to honoring these little champions at our annual luncheon on Saturday, January 20th.
  • There are still open volunteer opportunities for parties in January! Check out what’s available here.
  • Save the date! More information to come..
    • Evening of Birthday Cheer- April 19
    • Highmark Walk- May 12

Happy New Year to all! Here are some final thoughts on 2017 from our Founder and Co-Director Megs:

As we embark on a new year of spreading birthday cheer I just want to personally thank ALL OF YOU for the love, kindness, and support you continue to show us each and every year.

As I reflect on 2017 I can’t help but think of something my son Wyatt said – he said we should all “have a happy heart”.

I like to think that what we are doing each day, by spreading birthday cheer, is giving thousands of children and families the opportunity to have a piece of happiness in their heart. This is what matters – this is the hope, joy, and comfort these children deserve.

It is hard to believe that we have been doing this for 6 years and I am so excited to see what 2018 can bring.

It is a privilege, honor, and joy to wear the Cheer Captain hat and I thank all of you for believing that #smilesmatter

Gratefully yours,

Ms. Megs