The Birthday Party Project

Paige Chenault, a former event planner, was pregnant and thinking about the birthday parties she’d throw for her future child when she opened a copy of Time magazine and saw a photograph of a child living in poverty. What about him? she thought. What about kids who won’t have birthday parties? So she started throwing a monthly birthday party for kids at a homeless shelter in Dallas and called it the Birthday Party Project. During the first party, an eleven-year-old approached her and said, “Thank you, Ms. Paige. This is the first birthday party I’ve ever had.” Today, the nonprofit brings birthday parties to shelters in nineteen cities every month. If you live in one of those cities, you can volunteer. Anyone can donate toward the parties, and you can also donate $50 to cover the cost to create and ship a birthday in a box to social workers who are working with kids in homeless shelters or foster care.