July 2020 News

COVID Operations Update: Birthday Dreams continues to work hard to fulfill urgent birthday requests while maintaining the health and safety of our employees and the community we serve. We received the following feedback from a parent whose child recently received a birthday-in-a box: "I recently moved out of a shelter into affordable housing. My daughter remembered getting help from Birthday Dreams last year and was very excited (overjoyed) when she learned she would qualify for one more year at least. It was important to use to celebrate my daughter's birthday with immediate family who we live with even though we could not invite friends due to the shutdown from COVID-19." The birthday girl said she loved everything about her celebration and would not change a thing. We look forward to slowly expanding our operations as restrictions are lifted. Watch our Facebook page for real-time updates.

Volunteer Thank You Birthday Dreams appreciates each and every volunteer; every year we host a brunch to acknowledge and celebrate our top volunteers. Although brunch wasn't possible this year, we were excited to extend our extra special thank you in a fun new way. On June 13, we hand delivered treat bags with a Trophy cupcake, balloons and bubbly to our top 21 volunteers. We also planted yard signs in each of their yards as a special "shout out" for all to see. To our top 21 and our entire volunteer community. Thank you!

Community Support and Recognition

The Microsoft Business Applications Group (BAG) chose to use their summer event budget to give back to local area non-profits that support children and families. Birthday Dreams was honored to be selected as one of the recipients. The $5000 donation, which equates to 20 shelter parties or 40 Birthdays-in-a-Box, is earmarked for birthday celebrations! Thank you Pam Brumlow for nominating Birthday Dreams and the BAG for selecting our cause. A big thank you to Jazwares, who donated 12 pallets of new toys to Birthday Dreams! The toys, which are appropriate for kids ages 3-15 will bring smiles to hundreds of Birthday Dreams recipients. Thank you also to our amazing Program Director Andrea Bates. In addition to picking up for Birthday Dreams, she and her husband Marcus delivered 18 pallets of toys to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Puget Sound and Bellevue.

Kids Helping Kids | Thank You

Lafayette Elementary School. The school district of Lancaster has an initiative that teaches students about entrepreneurship and philanthropy among other valuable lessons. As part of the initiative, this third grade class crafted and "sold" hand-made items using a "pretend money" system, which their teacher Elizabeth McGee-Fredericks matched with real money. The class learned about and voted on which organizations would receive a donation; Birthday Dreams was one of two organizations to be selected. Holy Spirit Lutheran Church. As part of its Non-Profit Extravaganza, each of the church’s Youth Confirmation groups are asked to research a local non-profit. With guidance from their leaders, the kids come up with creative ways to present what they have learned to the church's Social Justice Committee. This committee selects 'winners' to receive a donation from the church. This year, Birthday Dreams was among the non-profits organizations the committee learned about; we were honored to be selected to receive a $200 donation!

Passive Giving Opportunities Give with Bing ?   Give Mode is a feature of Microsoft Rewards that enables you to support a cause you care about simply by searching on Bing. It starts by signing up for Microsoft Rewards. After joining, points earned for Bing searches will be automatically donated to your selected cause. Click here for details. Fred Meyer (Kroger) Community Rewards: This program makes donating to local organizations easy.Once you link your card to an organization, all you have to do is shop at Fred Meyer and swipe your Shopper’s Card.  Click here for details. Amazon Smile:   On your first visit to smile.amazon.com , select a charitable organization to receive donations from eligible purchases. From then on, every eligible purchase you make at  smile.amazon.com  will result in a donation to that organization. It's that easy!

Donate Full or Partially Used Gift Cards CharityChoice features a wide selection of beautiful designs and are the perfect gift with a purpose - gift. CharityChoice also allows you to donate the full or unused balance of gift card in your possession. Birthday Dreams is among the 1000 charities you can chose to donate your gift card balances to.

We Have Volunteer Opportunities!! In person orientations remain suspended; email Tiffaney@birthdaydreams.org   to arrange a virtual orientation. There are numerous volunteer activities you can do from home including, decorating party hats, creating goodie bags and crafting home-made birthday cards. Contact Leah@birthdaydreams.org for more information. We are once again accepting homemade cakes and are looking for cake bakers of all experience levels to help us fulfill cake requests. In accordance with public health guidelines, bakers need to have a food handlers permit (easy to obtain) and adhere to new food handler guidelines. Contact Tiffaney@birthdaydreams.org for details. Follow us on Facebook for up-to-date cake and delivery needs.  Click here for a complete list of upcoming parties and party needs.

Birthday Dreams' Birthday Club Want to join our Birthday Club? Click here to donate . Friend; $250-$499 Champion: $500-$999 Hero: $1,000 - $4,999 Superhero: $5,000 and up

Foremost Printing Use the Promo Code,  BDD2K2020  and 10% of the sales to Foremost Printing will be donated to Birthday Dreams. For inquires or requests: Call  206-501-5372 or Email:  ken@foremostprinting.com

Birthday Dreams | http://birthdaydreams.org

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