HELLO, ATLANTA! Or: Welcome, Friends of Reva!

As you all know, the running theme of our blog posts is being overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of our friends and family. Today's entry is no exception as we welcome some new Birthday Box Buddies all the way from Atlanta. Longtime FOOF (Friend of Orlansky Family) Hannah Hart Martin and her husband, Will (also a FOOF, if less long-time), contacted us about using their sweet Reva Pearl's birthday celebration as a Birthday Box fundraiser. We, of course, were floored (again) and thrilled (again) to take this fiesta over state lines. 

So, welcome Reva Revelers! Here's how this works: you give us birthday party supplies, and we provide prepackaged birthday parties for children in need. It's that simple! You can either bring Birthday Box supplies to Reva's celebration, or you can visit our Amazon Wish List and have those items shipped directly to our house. Last year we were able to give nearly 100 birthday parties to Jackson youth, and we're hopeful that we'll be able to crush that number this year. 

Here's what we're asking for:

• birthday cake mix
• frosting
• candles
• party hats
• confetti
• small party favors
• birthday cards
• reasonable (as if there is such a thing) noisemakers
• paper decorations

We politely request that you refrain from donating silly string, poppers, and perishables.

If you have any questions, you can email us at birthdayboxjxn@gmail.com or leave your query in the comments section.

A big thank you to the Martins for their partnership, and an even bigger thank you to those of you who will help expand the project through your donation. 

Happy Birthday Reva Pearl! We love you, kid. 

It's That Time Again!

Friends! The bad news is that we've done a really terrible job of keeping y'all updated on our progress. The good news is that we, thanks to your unending support and generous donations, have done a much better job providing Jackson children with nearly ONE HUNDRED birthday boxes. Between donations given around Sam's birthday last year, great work by the teens of Beth Israel Temple Youth (BITY), and some help from our friends at St. Andrew's Episcopal School, we were able to create 85 boxed birthday parties.

As you know, this was never intended to be a one and done project; and we are excited to share that it's fundraising time again! You can continue to donate directly to the project via our Amazon Wish List, and if you're local you can drop your donation by the house. Just give either of us a call (actually text because Hannah is terrified of telephones) and let us know when you'd like to come by.

Just in case you need a reminder, here's what we're looking for: 

• birthday cake mix
• frosting
• candles
• party hats
• confetti
• small party favors
• birthday cards
• reasonable (as if there is such a thing) noisemakers
• paper decorations

We politely request that you refrain from donating silly string, poppers, and perishables.

Sam's birthday party will continue to be an opportunity for his friends and family to donate Birthday Box supplies, and this year we're pretty jazzed that he might actually grasp the concept of what's happening. There's been a lot of birthday party talk around our house (remember: Hannah is obsessed with birthdays and starts talking about them months in advance) and we're looking forward to having Sam participate in a new way this year. Speaking of participating in new ways, we're so grateful to Sam's buddy, Harry Hayslett, who has asked that his birthday party guests also bring Birthday Box donations in lieu of a gift! To say that we continue to be overwhelmed by the support of our friends and family is both redundant (see: every other blog post) and an accurate understatement. One example of this incredibly supportive network of ours: before we even began publicizing this year's fundraising, a birthday banner appeared in our mailbox. I told y'all - it's overwhelming.

Sam's ready. Are you ready? 

Let's get this party started.

Big News!

Long time, no talk! We had an unbelievably busy summer (which included an extremely successful birthday party with lots of donations that definitely warrants an inappropriately late post) and fall and are incredibly excited to report that...

IT'S FINALLY TIME!

We've got our boxes, we've got our donations, and thanks to our gig as youth group advisors - an army of teens ready to assemble birthday boxes. 

This weekend, as part of NFTY Southern's region-wide day of social action, we'll be working with the aforementioned teens to make birthday cards, package, and wrap birthday boxes to be delivered to Stewpot.

To say that we're excited to finally get this going is the understatement of the century. We'll take lots of pictures of the assemblage and report a final number of this initial delivery post-haste. We hope you're as excited as we are and thank you oh so much for your support and donations.

wahoo!

A Very Full Porch

A very rainy and terribly gloomy Friday turned out to be PRETTY GREAT once I came home to an extremely packed porch.

Opening up eight boxes worth of goodies from our generous friends and family was a wonderful start to the weekend.

Samuel inspects the goodies...and tries to avoid Zeb smooches

Approximately 48 cans of funfetti frosting, bubbles, 100 bouncy balls, 60 pairs of silly shades and more. Pretty good haul!

SO much fun! Please continue to pass the word along to your friends and family - we've still got a long way to go.

A Couple of Things...

We've been so excited to launch Birthday Box that we neglected to give a proper shout out to our partners in all this, Stewpot Community Services.

We mentioned in our introduction to the project that the boxes will be distributed through the Stewpot food pantry, but wanted to make sure y'all knew about the other services they provide for Jackson families. From hot daily lunches to shelters to summer camp, Stewpot's contributions to our community are invaluable. You can find out more about other Stewpot programs here and information about supporting their efforts here.

We love Stewpot and are continually amazed by the things they do for those in need in our community. Partnering with them on this project is so exciting, and we are really grateful for the opportunity to do so.

One last thing: we heard from a few of you that we didn't set our...settings(?) to mail the Amazon Wish List purchases directly to us - that has been remedied and you shouldn't have to put in our address anymore. If you still have problems let us know.

I lied. I have one other thing: to say we have been overwhelmed by the support shown thus far would be an understatement. Thank you so much for your kind words and donations. We can't wait to start getting boxes together and sharing them with you and our friends at Stewpot. Stay tuned!

Introducing...Birthday Box Jackson!

We love birthdays.

Like, really love them. Maybe too much, even. There's just something magical about celebrating the day you graced the world with your presence in the company of family, friends, and cake. It is our firm belief that everyone, especially a child, deserves the opportunity to feel like the center of the universe for at least one day each year. It is with that in mind that we've decided to partner with Stewpot Community Services to launch Birthday Box Jackson, a program that will bring packaged birthday parties to Jackson's underprivileged youth.

Recently, a friend approaching his 30th birthday was lamenting that the older you get, the less significant birthdays become. His brilliant (and stunning!) fiancée issued him a challenge: if you think birthdays don’t matter, then make them matter. He did, and together they raised over $13,000 for public schools in South Dallas. Another close friend chose to skip her usual birthday bash and instead asked her friends to help her provide toys and food for children at two shelters in Jackson. This notion of turning what is normally a really good day into a day devoted to really doing good stuck with us, and we think Samuel can learn a lot from his Aunt Natalie, Aunt Whitney and Uncle Chequan. That's why we've decided to launch Birthday Box Jackson in conjunction with Sam's second birthday; in the future we'll use his birthday as a way to rev up donation efforts to continue the project. First we'll tackle providing Birthday Boxes for patrons of Stewpot's food pantry but the sky is the limit!

So! Instead of bringing or sending Sam birthday gifts, we are asking our friends, family, friends of family, and family of friends to give Birthday Box donations. There are a couple of ways for you to do this:

You can visit our Amazon Wish List and have products shipped directly to us.

Or, if you're joining us for Samuel's birthday party, you can bring donations with you! Here's what we're asking for:

• birthday cake mix
• frosting
• candles
• party hats
• confetti
• small party favors
• birthday cards
• reasonable (as if there is such a thing) noisemakers
• paper decorations

We politely request that you refrain from donating silly string, poppers, and perishables.

Thank you so much for indulging us and reading to this point - we literally and figuratively can't wait to get this party started. We'll be fundraising throughout the summer and hope to start handing out boxes in the fall.

And please, pass the word along. This is going to be a huge undertaking and while we know we have an incredibly generous network of family and friends, we're going to need all the help we can get. If you have any questions, leave a comment or email us at birthdayboxjxn@gmail.com

One last thing - don't let this be the last time you visit the blog! We'll be chronicling our journey and posting lots of pictures to make sure those of you who participate are able to see our progress.

Thanks again, y'all.