For many children, a birthday party can be the biggest day of the year.
For many children, a birthday party can be the biggest day of the year.
For families experiencing homelessness, celebrating that milestone is not always possible.
Birthday Dreams is a nonprofit that provides birthday parties for children up to 18 years old who are experiencing homelessness.
The organization’s mission is to bring “joy, value and excitement” to kids on their birthdays, while also helping “make their parents the hero of the event,” according to board member Elle Frederiksen.
Frederiksen said the idea is rooted in the fact that birthdays are universal.
“It’s this realization that everyone has a birthday. Not everyone necessarily celebrates Christmas or Easter or so many of the different opportunities that are out there for celebration, but everyone has a birthday,” she said. “Knowing how loved they felt to have that birthday carries on years later.”
Birthday Dreams celebrates more than 160 children each month and has served 18,500 children to date.
The organization partners with 87 shelters across Snohomish, King and Pierce counties.
Frederiksen said the nonprofit works to make celebrations feel personal while keeping parents at the center of the experience.
“We put everything together for the party," Frederiksen said. "We bring it to the parent. We really let them be the birthday hero, and so seeing the impact on both sides was really incredible."
The organization’s biggest fundraiser of the year, the Denim and Diamonds gala, is scheduled for Sept. 26 at the Museum of Flight.
