It was refreshing to hear amongst all the materialism in today’s society, that a little girl somewhere in the US asked on her 5th birthday if all kids receive birthday gifts. As nearly 13m children in the US live at or below the poverty level, barely affording food, housing or education, gifts are not a priority.
After her question “why can’t we give them gifts?” her parents created a website to donate surprise birthday gifts to underprivileged, seriously ill or physically challenged children through charities.
Donors make a donation and a child receives a personalized card and an award-winning book tailored to their age and gender. Gifts are varied according to age and the donor can choose to give the gift to a child that shares their birthday or their first name.
It is heartwarming to hear that a recent gift from the website On Your Birthday was delivered to a young lady whose mum was reduced to tears as she could not even afford a basic birthday party or a present.
May I encourage everyone who reads this blog to follow the example of Mary Cloyd who when planning a surprise 80th birthday party for her dad told all 100 guests to instead make a donation to the On Your Birthday site as ‘he doesn’t need a thing and will enjoy kids getting a birthday gift’.
