My 6 year old daughter has developed a huge interest in helping others, which I am so proud about! Her birthday is coming up in March and we've been talking about asking friends to bring a donation for a charity. She got the idea from a commercial she saw on the Disney Channel.
I have a few things in mind for places our church supports but I am wondering if there are any places that I haven't thought of that could benefit from something like this. So if you have an idea, please post away so I can get to coming up with ideas for her birthday party. :)
Thanks!!
Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation helps kids set up lemonade stands to raise money for children's cancer research. She could "sell" lemonade at the party, instead of asking people to bring money for donation. They also have an email with info you can send out in advance of the party to let people know she's raising money for ALSF and they can make donations online.
Good job raising a great kid!
Children's hospital has a list online of donations they accept, art supplies, DVD's, new books. One year for my son's service project at school we collected new and gently used books to donate to medical center of Plano for the peds floor.
I suggest finding charities that work locally in your area, like the Boys and Girls Club, or the Salvation Army. These community-based charities are right where you live, so your lovely daughter can bring her donation in to them.
I would contact them and let them know about your daughter's interest and plan. I'm not sure about the Boys and Girl's club, but I know that the Salvation Army will likely recognize her with a certificate of thanks for her donation.
♥
C. Lee
My daughters were invited to a birthday party where instead of gifts, they were asked to bring gently used stuffed animals or toys to be donated to a homeless shelter. It was really nice. As long as your daughter is OK not getting her own gifts at the party, it's a great idea!
I always recommend Dallas Childrens Advocacy Center. Obviously you don't want to go into a lot of detail with her, but DCAC investigates and provides therapy free of charge for physically and sexually abused children in dallas county. They do a fantastic job on a shoe string budget and I think it is one of the best charities around.
Kudos for your daughter to care and what a great lesson for her and kudos to you for raising such a caring little person!!
That's so sweet. You have gotten a lot of good ideas for local charities. My friend did a charity drive for her 50th birthday. We brought new/gently used pillow cases for an organization that turns them into dresses for little girls in Africa. Here is the link:
http://www.littledressesforafrica.org/blog/
Whatever you choose, you are doing a great thing....
St. Baldrick's Foundation
During childhood cancer awareness month at the end of last year, I learned so many sad statistics about how little (less than a penny on the $1) from American Cancer society etc actually go towards childhood cancer research. Many of the treatments to small children are the same as for adults, causing so many drastic side effects. Repeatedly I read how St. Baldricks is the best for children's cancer research and how they really use your hard earned money for the good.
That is great that your daughter is growing up to be a charitable young lady. You must be doing a great job, mama.
The Birthday Party Project throws parties for homeless children in Dallas who have most likely never had a birthday celebration before. Check it out at www.thebirthdaypartyproject.org. :)
anything child or animal related. kids have such soft hearts for other kids in need or suffering animals. we went to a party recently where the birthday boy included a picture of a puppy and said you can feed "rex" for .28 cents per day, there are 10,000 rexes currently in need. my child was moved to make a donation out of his allowance!
Since this is your daughter's party, it should be her choice. Pick something that she is interested in. If she likes animals, the local humane socieity is a great choice. If she likes to read, she can give books her school or hospital.
that is SUPER! My son wanted to do that for his 10th birthday, and we did a fundraiser for MDA, unfortunatly, none of the 45 kids we invited showed or RSVP'd. Made my son very sad.He did get a bit concerned as the date got closer,that he wouldn't be getting any presents, but we talked about it and he would be ok again- needless to say, it didn't matter in the long run anyway.
You could talk to a coordinator at a local childrens hospital and collect gifts for children when they are there. My son was in the hospital 2 yrs ago and they gave him a Lego set to build so he would not be bored. It had been donated. A friend's daughter had a book party and everyone that came donated a bunch of books that were then delivered to a hospital, a shelter and somewhere else to give to children. I also suggest a local animal shelter.
Homeless shelter
Group Home for Children
Any gifts could also be donated.
Give your little princess a big hug for me! What a selfless and lovely child she must be! Good job, mama!
Dallas Children's Advocacy Center - and tell her, age appropriate, what they do there - awesome place!
New Beginnings Center, Garland - shelter and counseling for domestic violence including children.
Any food bank.
White Rock Center of Hope - they help in multiple ways if you are in their area.
Not sure anything homeless is appropriate as they have to keep up with it......
I am very familiar with all of these and they all can use help and do great things!
One possibility is to ask everyone to bring a plain baseball cap to the party and decorate it with peace signs as an activity during the party. They can then be donated to the Dallas Stew Pot. The homeless are always in need of hats to shade their face from the sun. Here is a link to other items the Stew Pot is looking for.
http://www.thestewpot.org/donate.asp
http://www.thestewpot.org/pdf/donations/Summer%20Survival...
Have a super sweet birthday!
Kim
S. - DFW Cake Decorating P.
I love this!
Two years ago (shortly after our dog died - my son's first Best Friend) he decided to ask his friends to bring something for the Humane Society instead of a gift. I gave some ideas off of the list on their website and also gave the website so they could look up things for themselves, too.
I liked this because some of the ideas were things like towels and stuffed animals, so the parents did not have to spend money if their finances were tight (as I knew some were) or just so they didn't have to spend money on a gift.
We did get him a gift to open at his party and so did his grandparents. It was perfect and he loved taking the gifts to the shelter. He wants to do it again this year, and said he thinks he will next year, too!
Soldiers' Angels. - http://soldiersangels.org/index.php?page=donating-items
They send care packages to deployed troops. You can send just about anything except pork products and alcohol (like mouthwash)
Local animal shelter - they always need donations of used towels, bleach, toys, food.
http://www.cheerfulgivers.org/
This is an organization that has people make Birthday bags for disadvantaged kids who otherwise do not get birthday gifts. I did it locally for a service project for a Child Development class I was in.
Look over the web site and see if it is in your area. I dropped the done bags off at a local food shelf and they distribute them.
I think charity donations during birthday parties are such a great idea. My 3 yrs old son decided he wanted to help puppies. So for his party coming up we are going to collect dog/puppy supplies for a local animal rescue shelter. During the party we are going to have the children make doggie treats. After we have everything together my husband and I will take both our children to the shelter to drop off the supplies and the people at the shelter agreed to let my kids feed some of the dogs there the treats that the kids will make.
My daughter wants to collect lunch boxes, so we will donate those to a local Abbott preschool program that is state funded for low income families.
One of my daughter's classmate's is collecting school supplies for the Boys and Girls club.
There are so many options. Just ask your daughter what she would like to collect and I'm sure you could find someone who could really use the donation :)
My 6 year old daughter had the opportunity to help at North Texas Food Bank so when she had a lemonade stand she asked everyone to bring a can or box of food instead of money. For some reason, it affects her more that kids don't have food than anything else. Plus it would be easy to collect and drop off food. Or you could do books for any number of children's causes- I know Trinity River Mission which supports disadvantaged kids in south Dallas to get an education by providing tutors has it's own library for kids to check out books.
