News, Updates & Opportunities

December 2023

Our sincere thanks to everyone who supported Birthday Dreams over the past year. You have made a difference in the lives of so many children and we sincerely appreciate your support. We realize this time of year can be both stressful and busy, but as part of our Annual Holiday Appeal, we'd like to humbly ask you to take a moment to consider a year-end donation to help us get to our goal of supporting even more children in the coming year.

Your support enables us to provide parents in need with the ability to celebrate their children regardless of their financial or living situations and ensures every child has a chance to feel special on their birthday. At our October Gala of Dreams, we heard firsthand from the Adkison family just how meaningful the gift of a birthday party is for families in need. View the Adkison family's moving testimonial here.

The link to our Holiday Appeal giving levels can be found here. To give, visit our secure website.

With your help, we will bring even more moments of joy and smiles to homeless youth and families in 2024. Thank you for your consideration and continued support of our mission!

Upcoming Event | Toy and Coat Drive with Santa

We received some large candy donations from the following organizations after Halloween:

• Sumner Food Bank (24 boxes) 
• Ridwell (25 boxes)
• Orange Theory (500 pounds)

Thank you to all the individuals who donated candy, as well as all the volunteers who have been/are sorting it for us! Candy always makes for a great goody bag filler!

Thank you to all the individuals and organizations who donated to our birthday children this past month, including:

• Sally Eastey donated 86 items, including action figures, arts and crafts supplies and stationery, Barbies and other dolls, health and beauty products, and more. Sally signed up to provide gifts for 16 children.
• Robi Holmes and Kat Knight of Gartner donated 46 items, including many Squishmallows, Disney Princess dolls, blankets, and lots of party supplies.
• West Mercer Elementary School donated 28 items, including books, socks, puzzles, and Hot Wheels.

Lyla Smith held a fundraiser for her 70th birthday party. Her generous friends donated over 210 items in her honor. In addition to many toys, her friends donated party supplies, birthday cards, tape, and wrapping paper. Their donations totaled about $2,200. 

Thank you and happy birthday, Lyla!

For the second time this year, Goodman Real Estate brought in a volunteer team to assist Birthday Dreams with various needs. This time the team did some important handiwork around the office because they love supporting our mission.

Thank you to the Goodman Real Estate team! #goodmanrealestate

Thank you to the local HomeGoods Management Team! The team hosted a "give-back" volunteer opportunity at a recent team meeting, where members of the team donated to and assembled over 300 goody bags for Birthday Dreams.

Thank you!

Each month Birthday Dreams receives grant awards from our terrific foundation partners. Without their support, we could not do what we do. Last month we received a $3,500 grant from The Glaser Foundation. Thank you for your support!

The extensive website offers many avenues for volunteering and there is something out on the site for everyone who has a desire to volunteer. I had a milestone birthday party and in lieu of gifts for myself, I asked my guests to bring toys for Birthday Dreams and they donated over 180 toys from my party. My goal is to have an annual event for a toy drive. In addition to the toy drive, I volunteered for the Gala of Dreams fundraising auction, and have donated gifts for the birthday parties.

I can’t say enough about the incredible staff and amazing volunteers that I’ve met in a short period of time that are associated with Birthday Dreams. This organization is a perfect fit for me.”

Again, a huge thank you to Lyla for her generous and caring support! If you would like to find out more information about how you can follow in her footsteps including how to "share" your birthday with Birthday Dreams, please contact Volunteer and Community Events Coordinator, Tabitha Amorosa.

We would like to thank Leah Battin for all that she has done for Birthday Dreams over the past five years. Leah has volunteered as our Community Events Coordinator since May 2019. She recently passed the baton to our amazing Volunteer Coordinator, Tabitha Amoroso.

Leah started planning community events for us in May 2019 and has coordinated over 120 events to date. Using her excellent communication and organizational skills, Leah has built a very successful Community Event Program. Her efforts resulted in thousands of volunteer hours and dollars and facilitated events that yielded 10,000+ party supplies (party hats, goody bags, etc) for our birthday parties. Thank you again, Leah, for all that you've done for Birthday Dreams and the children we support. You will be missed! 

A 14-year-old boy enjoyed this Gaming Cake made by Jackie Muir. Gifts included a body fragrance set, Star Wars book, micro drone, XBOX gift card, and GameWorks play cards. Everything was delivered by Dave Whitesell.

A 10-year-old boy celebrated his birthday with these Multi-Sports Cupcakes made by Eileen Wang. His gifts included Roblox action figures x8, a piggy bank, a ball, an MLB sticker collection, a gravity maze, and a hockey toy. Everything was delivered by Dave Whitesell.

A 10-year-old girl enjoyed this Art Cake made by Suzanne Bratten. Gifts were provided by Sally Eastey and included canvas, acrylic art set, sketching sets, art supplies organizer, and a sketchbook. Everything was delivered by Laurel Tomchick.

Seahawks Cake

by Beatriz Gonzalez

Science Cake

by Karen Criddle

Pizza Cake

by Cathy Footer

Happy Birthday Cake

by Kristina Tomalesky

Spiderman Cake

by Page Monji

Lego Cake

by Cherie Katana

Volunteer Orientation and Opportunities



If you are interested in becoming a Birthday Dreams volunteer, please sign up to attend a brief in-person orientation by emailing our Volunteer Coordinator, Tabitha Amoroso, at Tabitha@birthdaydreams.org.

Orientations are typically held the second Saturday and third Tuesday of each month and run around one hour. Below is a list of upcoming orientations:

• Saturday, December 9 at 11 AM
• Tuesday, December 19 at 6 PM
• Saturday, January 13 at 11 AM
• Tuesday, January 16 at 6 PM

We would like to thank our former Community Events Coordinator, Leah Battin, for all that she has done for Birthday Dreams over the past few years. Leah started planning community events for us in May 2019 and has coordinated over 120 events to date. Her support generated thousands of volunteer hours and dollars and facilitated events that yielded 10,000+ party supplies (hats, bags, etc) for our birthday parties. Thank you again, Leah, for all that you've done for Birthday Dreams and the children we support. You will be missed! 

In addition to volunteer orientations and on-boarding cake bakers, Tabitha Amoroso is now assuming responsibility for community service/team building events.

Please email Tabitha regarding orientations, community service projects or to volunteer.

Follow us on Facebook! Cake and delivery needs are posted weekly. A list of upcoming parties and party needs can be found here. 

Office and Party Supply Needs

We rely on our donors and volunteers to make birthday dreams come true. This month we are need of the following items for our birthday children: 

• Cake Boxes (12” round, ¼ sheets, and cupcake trays)
• Barbie Dolls (with diverse backgrounds and ethnicities) 
• Sports Balls (footballs, basketballs, and soccer balls)
• Gift Bows

Did you know that you can use Amazon to set up automatic donations? Just select “Subscribe and Save” to make an automatic order monthly for Birthday Dreams and select the Birthday Dreams address when you check out! It’s an easy way to support our office needs and help Birthday Dreams in a big way. Check out our updated Amazon Wish List for more ideas.

We are always in need of: 

• Juice (gallon jugs or boxes/pouches that are non-refrigerated) 
• Large gift bags, clothing boxes, and gift bows 
• Gift Cards in $10-$35 denominations 
• $10-$15 for food & beverage locations
• $25-$35 for retail locations 
• Art Supplies 
• Baby / Toddler Learning Toys 
• Sports Balls (footballs, basketballs, and soccer balls)
• Amazon Fire Tablets  
• Ink Pens
• Video Games (PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One) 
• RC Cars 
• Board Games for all ages, but teenagers specifically 
• LOL Dolls 
• Slime Kits 
• Hello Kitty Items 
• Jewelry Making Kits 
• Coloring Books for girls and boys 

A big Birthday Dreams thank you to all of our new and renewing Birthday Club members this past month:

A complete list of our 2023 Birthday Club Members can be found on our Birthday Club page. If you are not a current Birthday Club member and would like to join, please click here to donate.