The Birthday Party Project

Working at JCPenney is rewarding in different ways. One of those ways is that they let us give back to the community by various projects. This month we partnered with the Birthday Party Project and went to celebrate some awesome kid's birthdays one afternoon. We were gathered into two rows of equally excited adults, facing one another with our arms outstretched forward and above our heads. The lady by the door says "here they come!" and we start cheering and chanting "Happy Birthday!!" as the kids run through the tunnel of bodies and arms.. it was such a rush.

One thing I genuinely love about the company I work for is their passion for volunteerism and giving back to the community. A few weeks ago at one of our weekly divisional meetings, Paige Chenault came and spoke to us about The Birthday Party Project. If you have not heard about this organization, I strongly urge you to click the link above and learn more. They work with more than 10 agencies in the Dallas/Ft Worth area to provide birthday parties for the children staying in the shelters during that time. They go to each shelter once a month, twelve months a year. They have been celebrating community birthdays since January of 2012, recognizing over 500 birthdays- and counting- to date. My co-workers and I got play with and love on a lot of kiddos yesterday. We ran around on the playground, painted mini-canvas's, made sand-art necklaces, creatively designed pillow cases, ate cupcakes & had the best of times.

The most memorable moment for me yesterday was when we were walking toward the car, after the party was over and one of my co-workers says, "we should help that lady cross the street." We all three ran over to this woman who was not only carrying a pretty good size box of gifts- but she also had two little ones in tow. We greeted her and told her we would help her cross the street, I grabbed the box and my two co-workers got on either side of the woman and her children as we crossed the street together. She gave us a very warm, heartfelt thank you as her daughter came over and grabbed on to my leg and squeezed. She looked up and said, "thank you for my birthday." I could feel the water in my eyes get heavy as she hugged my two co-workers. Her brother was right behind her with the hugs and the thank-yous. The kindest, most appreciative children you would have ever met. Completely made my day.

I can honestly say that my heart is very full right now, and I am very grateful for the family and life that I have. There is nothing more rewarding in life than to know that you've made someone else's day brighter.

Until next time.

-S

Serving Your Community: Help-Portrait: Denton

This was taken from a blog I managed before I stumbled upon this site :)[vimeo 84651817 w=500 h=281]

Video by: Ryan Polly

Hi, friends! I recently had the opportunity to work with an amazing group of people in my area to make our first annual Help-Portrait:Denton event come to life. Help-Portrait is a nation wide event that takes place annually on December 6th. Unfortunately December 6th took place during the infamous DFW Icemageddon 2013, but that did not stop us! We decided to post-pone our event to a safer time for everyone to be out and it took place a little less than two weeks ago, on January 11th.

The Help-Portrait mission is simple – photographers from around the world grab their cameras, find people in need and take their pictures. Once the prints are ready, they are delivered for free.

This event is important and special to me on many levels and for many reasons. Help-Portrait is an event that allows people who have never met to come together and help serve the communities that they love and hold close to their hearts.

My role in the event was to help coordinate and organize donations, necessary paperwork, and to help secure a location for rescheduled event. Although I am not a photographer (or really all that creative, to be honest) I do have an administratively organized mind and as I was told during the event – that is necessary for someone to have. Denton is a great little town with some of the nicest people around, and that made it fairly easy to round up some things we needed to make this event successful (hair/make up donations, photo paper and ink, food for our guests, etc). I worked with a team of outstanding individuals who truly brought the vision that our event organizer, Shaina Sheaff, had two years ago come to life.

If you are interested in helping your community with the Help-Portrait event, visit the national website here and chose the “Start Here” button at the top. You can find out if there is already an organized event in your area. And if there is not, you can definitely start one!