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Shelters can be scary places for young kids. But for one day a year, Allison Rorick intends to make them places of joy.
In May, Rorick started a new charity called Birthday Blessings, a non-profit that aims to throw birthday parties for homeless children.
“Birthday (celebrations) aren’t necessarily something that people think we need in our lives,” Rorick said. “But everybody needs to be celebrated. It encourages self-esteem, especially when kids are going into these shelters and everything is turned upside down.”
Rorick, 33, says she got the idea to start Birthday Blessings after thinking about how blessed she and her family members were to celebrate their birthdays with family and friends.
“We take birthdays for granted,” she said. “There are people out there who have never been celebrated, who have never even gotten a birthday present.”
Rorick’s goal is to eventually hold parties for all homeless kids in shelters and school districts. She plans to throw parties for children who have birthdays in the same month, and to offer them cake, goody bags and presents.
Rorick doesn’t want to make promises she can’t keep, so she’s starting small. In January, she plans to throw three parties. To get her group launched, she’s hoping people will donate supplies, gifts, gift baskets and cakes – anything that will allow her to throw a great birthday party.
Roricks’ needs are some of many included in this year’s Charity Wish List, which will run through Sunday in The Journal Gazette. Today’s list includes requests for furniture, clothes and other miscellaneous items. The final portion of the annual list Sunday includes the needs from charities that help animals.
Rorick, an interior-design major, is collecting all of her party supplies in her home.
“I have a little bit of an event-coordinator background,” she said. “I like to do this kind of stuff. It’s really fun and really simple.”
