The Land of Cheer in October

October was a busy month for the land of cheer.  Not only did we get to celebrate our birthday kiddos at our Skeleton Soirees, but we also got to party with expectant moms (and a new week old baby!) at two Lovebug baby showers!

Another exciting event that happened in October was our Champions of Cheer kick-off.  For those of you that don’t know, Champions of Cheer is a youth leadership development training which culminates with each young leader designing and implementing a fundraising project in their community benefiting Beverly’s Birthdays. This is one of our favorite volunteer projects of the year because we get to see kids helping other kids through their own creative, inspired ideas!

One way kids, and adults alike are able to give back year round is through our Birthday Give-Back program.  Countless people have turned their own birthday into an opportunity to help others. Typically participants of this program invite guests to bring needed Beverly’s Birthdays items or monetary donations to their own celebration in lieu of personal presents. We provide downloadable promotional materials including:

all in preparation for the celebration. This idea stemmed from Miss Megs.  When she heard Beverly had never had a birthday celebration, she said would have given up all 26 of her celebrations if it meant Beverly and other kids would feel acknowledged and special on their birthday.  This program is also awesome because there is room for individual creativity. If you want to use your birthday to give back and have a different idea on how you want to do it, great! Some other ideas on how to do this:

• Create an online fundraising page with Beverly’s Birthdays as the nonprofit the fundraiser is benefitting
• Hire Fairytale Princess Visits for your event. They donate a part of the proceeds from every Fairytale Princess Visit to us!
• order catering for your party from Moe’s southwest Grill! Moe’s has a Buy One Give One program where they donate food for one of our parties for every party someone uses their catering for.

Quick shout-out to all of you, THANK YOU land of cheer for your support! Our volunteers and donors are the heart of our organization and without them, we would not be able to fulfill our mission.  As we continue to expand and grow, our support base does as well.  We are continually overwhelmed by the generosity and love our supporters share with the kids and families we service.

Birthday Party Activities

Wooden Skeletons

This month our main activity was designing and painting wooden skulls! We always say our parties are contained chaos, but painting is one activity that our kids will sit down, focus and take their time on, painting their own unique creations.

Supplies:

• Wooden skulls
• Paint
• Paintbrushes
• Plates
• Water cups
• Napkins/ wet wipes

Every child received a plain wooden skull, a paint brush, water cup, and paint.  We unleashed the kids’ imaginations and the results were awesome!  Some kids made pretty, sugar skull looking masterpieces while others made bloody zombie skeletons, and everything in between.

Skull Magnets

 

Another craft the kids’ especially liked this month was making skull magnets. This activity also encouraged creativity as the kids were just given a blank skeleton head and a bunch of sticker options, and they got to choose how they wanted to make their face.

Supplies:

• Skull magnet kit
• Creative kids

This craft is a great option for all ages because there are few supplies needed and self-adhesive stickers make for minimal cleanup.

Additional Activities

• Skull Bean Bag Toss Game
• Scratchers
• Skeleton Coloring Sheets
• Hokey Pokey
• Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
• Bone Dance/ Skeleton Dance

Lovebug Baby Showers

Three times a year we are lucky enough to throw baby showers to help our expectant moms celebrate their new babies. These parties are a change in atmosphere from our chaotic kids birthday parties, but fun in their own unique way. These baby showers include food catered by Moe’s Southwest Grill, baby shower games, awesome prizes, and of course cupcakes!

 

This month’s baby shower theme was lovebug! We played lovebug bingo, lovebug baby babble, and lovebug price is right game.  All of our moms walked away with an itty bitty bin in preparation and celebration of their little lovebug.

*Big thanks to Jasmine Cho, owner of Yummyholic who donated these awesome cookies as party favors for the guests.

Other News

• Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation and Star 100.7 have partnered with us to throw a pre-party toy collection before her concert on Monday November 20th!  We will be collecting toys at the pre-party at the Cambria Hotel and Suites and the whole time leading up to the start of her show!
• Shout-out to South Fayette Elementary and Middle Schools for completing an awesome toy drive for us.  They donated over $10,000 worth of new toys and $2500 worth of party supplies.
• Congrats to our very own Miss Megs who was recently celebrated as one of Pittsburgh’s 40 under 40 honorees!

As we head into the holiday season, our Co-Director Josh is super busy setting up holiday drives to re-stock our barren toy shelves. If you or your company is interested, please email getinvolved@beverlysbirthdays.org! Also November’s minion-themed parties are sure to result in some great photos so make sure to check back here next month. #smilesmatter

Birthday cheer,

Beverly’s Birthdays staff