Welcome to our Birthday Bags Site

Link to News10 Segment

Hi everyone.  Here is the link to our "Birthday Bag" segment on News10.  Check it out!!

Or Watch it here,

We Reached 200 Bags!!

Over 200 Birthday Bags Delivered!!! 

We did it!  We delivered our 206th bag in 2006!!!  What a great way to end the year!  This was a special month for us, Grandpa and Grandma Martin (aka Bob and Della) funded the birthday bags this month which meant we got to go shopping as a family, and Danny and Sarah got to pick out ALL of the gifts.  The kids usually get to pick out one or two gifts each month but I get most of our gifts when I find things on clearance, and I never know when or where that's going to be.  Sarah picked out dog and cat books with coordinating stuffed animals, Danny couldn't resist a couple of Star Wars items (a C3PO figure and light saber), and both kids picked out Littlest Pet Shop figures.  We also had some board games and Henry and Mudge books (again, a Danny favorite).  The kids really enjoyed shopping and picking out all the gifts, our basket was full, and it was hard to narrow it down to just 10.  As always, we had fun putting the bags together, and since the kids were out of school they came with me to drop them off.  We posted more pictures in the photo album.  Check them out!

We are looking forward to another fun filled year making our "Birthday Bags" and brightening the birthdays of local children.  It means so much to us to have found a hands-on way to help local families, especially children, and we are so thankful and grateful for the support of our family and friends.  I think our family gets as much joy from making the "bags" as the recipients get from receiving them and we hope that when you read our blog that it puts a smile on your face and warms your heart.  We fill with pride every time Danny and Sarah do something totally on their own in support of our "bags".  We are so proud of them!

We wish everyone a happy and healthy 2007.

Children's books for AIFC

Danny, Sarah, and I donated 39 books and 24 children magazines to the Auburn Food Closet.  They have set up a new program where children may select and take home a book each time they come to the food closet.  Parents are also encouraged to take a book home to their child if the child isn't with them that day.  Danny and Sarah love books and we think this is a neat program.  Most of the donated books were from Sarah's library since Danny's books are passed along to Sarah.  She was really cute, looking at the books, deciding she had read them enough times, and saying "it's time to pass it along."  Of course we kept several of our favorites, you can never read them enough times!!  Most of the books were very well loved, we get a lot of our books passed down to us or we buy them at the thrift store, but we hope the children who read them love them as much as we have.  If you have any books you're ready to pass along let me know and we'll be happy to drop them off for you with our monthly delivery of Birthday Bags.

Happy Reading!!

How we make bags (by Danny)

How we make bags is we first choose the toy for the boy or girl who receive them. Then we choose the bag, cake, frosting, tissue, and candles. And my mom drives us to the AIFC to drop them off.

From,Danny

Birthday Bags (by Sarah)

I like making Birthday Bags for kids.  We give them to the food closet.    I hope the kids had GREAT birthdays!!!!! 

Love,  Sarah

A Year in Review

Hello Everyone!  I can't believe it's been over a year since I sent out my last update.  I thought I would have a little more free time when both kids were in school for full days but as many of you know, it doesn't work out that way.  I'm sorry for the delay; here's an update on our "Birthday Bags".

Our "Birthday Bag" program is still going strong!!  Yesterday we dropped off our 196th birthday bag (we were accompanied by News10, which was very exciting, and I'll write more about that soon).  We've settled into a nice groove; we've learned the best places to get really good deals and supplies, and we've learned some of the gifts that are more popular than others.  Danny and Sarah still enjoy working on the bags and helping to brighten the birthdays of Auburn area children.  We continue to donate 10 bags a month and each month all of the bags get distributed to parents who have a child with a birthday that month. 

This past year we've had some really nice help.  Our neighbor Gena gave us 9 new Bionicle and Knights Kingdom figures.  Over the years, Gena's boys and Danny have really enjoyed building Bionicles so it was exciting to have some to share.  Gena's generosity supplied us with older-boy gifts for 9 months.  Having a great gift for older boys is AWESOME!  Thank you Gena!

My friend Michelle recently donated $20 to our program and I purchased 80 boxes of birthday candles.  That's 8 months worth of special birthday "wishes"!  When's the last time $20 touched so many children?  Making a wish and blowing out candles is such a part of childhood birthdays and it's exciting to be a part of that.  Thank you Michelle for helping us share this joy with so many children!

My husband Doug has been working on a website/blog for us so that we can keep everyone updated on our progress.  Now I have no excuse for not publishing updates!  It's going to be great having somewhere I can post our news and where friends and family can check in on us when they have time.  We'll be keeping you posted as we move forward.  A special thank you to Doug!

Many other friends and family members have offered their support and encouragement too.  We've had helpers come and make bags with us, which is always fun!  Thank you to everyone who checks in with us, encourages us, and helps us.  Your support keeps us going!

During the last school year Sarah continued to accompany me when we dropped off bags.  The food closet closes at 2:00 and Danny didn't get out of school until 2:15 so he wasn't able to come with us.  This year, Sarah also gets out at 2:15 so  I've dropped bags off a few times without them.  I really miss having them with me and Sarah mentioned that she misses delivering the bags so I'm going to check into dropping bags off on Saturdays during the school year so we can all go together again.  One of the things the kids enjoyed about summer vacation was being able to drop off bags at the food closet.

We wish everyone a happy and healthy 2006 Holiday Season!  I am really looking forward to the January clearance sales so we can stock up on birthday gifts for 2007.  Doug and I have given up about 1/4 of our closet space to store all of our wonderful supplies and we're willing to give up even more if we need to!  As always, please watch for those bargains and let me know when you find them so I can go stock up or next time you see a great deal, pick up a few things for us.  It really is fun to give a child a birthday surprise!

All our best,

Cheri

Delivered 8 More Bags

Hi All. Sarah and I delivered another 8 birthday bags to the food closet this afternoon. Shirley was happy to see us because they had passed out all of the bags from last month.  We had some really cute gifts this month and as usual we had fun putting them together.

The kids and I are pretty excited because we have now delivered 56 bags. When we first came up with the idea we hoped to donate 50 bags the first year and we've beaten that goal in 6 months. At this rate we'll touch the lives of more than 100 children in our first year. Thank you to everyone who has helped and encouraged us. We couldn't have done as much without you.
I hope everyone has a wonderful October!

Another 10 Birthday Bags

Great news. Our Birthday Bag program continues to gain momentum and we donated another 10 Birthday Bags in June. We’ve provided special birthdays to 30 children whose families have hit hard times. That is so many more than we thought we’d do in three months. Danny and Sarah had a lot of fun again putting the bags together and this month Sarah matched candle and cake colors as best she could. Good thing I found some strawberry cake mix to go with the pink candles. Danny’s favorite gift was a Bionicle, no surprise there. Hopefully there’s another little boy out there that loves Bionicles as much as he does.

Shirley shared another story with us when we dropped the bags off at the Auburn Food Closet. One of their clients came in and asked Shirley if the food closet had any cake mixes because her young daughter was having a birthday. Shirley told her she had something better and offered the mother a birthday bag. The mother appreciated receiving the goodies and was excited that she would be able to bake and decorate the cake herself as well as wrap the gift before she gave it to her daughter. I was really glad Shirley shared this story with us. One of my goals in making the Birthday Bags was to provide parents with items they need to give their child a special birthday but allow the parent the joy of baking the cake and wrapping the gift. I know how much fun I have baking and decorating birthday cakes with Danny and Sarah and how much I enjoy wrapping their present and then watching them open the gift. The fact that this mom got what I was trying to do made me really happy.

Shirley also shared with us that when a family registers with the food bank they list children with birth dates. When a family comes in the volunteers can see if a child in the family is having a birthday and can offer one of our bags. Shirley said the staff really enjoys having something colorful and fun to offer these families and that it brightens everyone’s day.

A special thanks to Bob and Della and to Angela for helping us with our bags this month. We really appreciate it.  I hope everyone has a wonderful July!   Thank you all for your support.

Second Batch of Birthday Bags

Hi all.  We dropped off our second batch of Birthday Bags today and have now made the birthdays of 20 children a little brighter.  Shirley at the food closet said the staff really enjoyed passing out the bags and the parents really appreciated receiving them.  Shirley was talking with one mom who mentioned that her son's 8th birthday was coming up and that she didn't have anything for him.  Shirley gave the mom one of the Birthday Bags and the mom started crying.  It was such a nice story and one I'm glad the kids got to hear.  A special thanks goes out to the City of Rohnert Park.  They had several bags of toys left over from a holiday toy drive which they donated to us.  Each of the Birthday Bags this month contained at least two coordinating gifts and they turned out really nice.  I've attached a picture of the kids with this months bags.  We've already started planning our bags for June.  I hope everyone has a great month and we'll keep you posted on how we're doing.

Birthday Bags Idea

Hi everyone.  I wanted to send a note to let you all know about a new project I've started with Danny and Sarah.  Last time we were in Redding I read an article in the paper about a woman who donated childrens' birthday gifts to her local food closet.   She had volunteered a few times and saw some birthday cake mixes and frosting on a shelf and asked about them.  She was told that parents came into the food closet and tried to find their child's favorite cereal or canned veggie as a birthday treat because they couldn't afford a cake or gift.  The food closet tried to keep a few cake mixes around to give to those parents; and she felt she could do more.  The story really touched me and I thought maybe we could do something like that here in Auburn.  I went to the Auburn food Closet last week and found out that they didn't have a program like this so I asked if I could start one and they said yes.  As many of you know, the kids love to bake and decorate birthday cakes so we decided our "Birthday Bags" should include a cake mix, frosting, candles, tissue paper and a small birthday gift.  Giving a birthday cake and gift to a child who otherwise wouldn't have one is something Danny and Sarah can really understand and get excited about.  Today we dropped off 8 "Birthday Bags".  The gifts included 2 My Little Ponies, a Transformer Robot/Truck, 2 electronic math games with a book, 2 Lego sets, and a Polly Pocket Mall.  It was so fun to watch the kids put the bags together, figuring out which frosting went with which cake and which candles went best with the gift.  Each "Birthday Bag" was customized by Danny or Sarah.  The kids and I are going to put together a few fund raisers like a neghborhood car wash and a lemonade stand so the kids can "earn" some of the money we use to buy the goodies and I've been asked to put together a flier explaining what we're doing so others can participate as well.  I'm surprised at how this idea is taking off and I'm excited about Danny and Sarah being involved in something that will make a child's birthday special. It will be interesting to see how things go in the next few months.  I'm really hoping I can coordinate something that will continue on into the future.  I'd love to hear your ideas and feedback.  What I've received so far has been really helpful!  Wish us luck and I'll keep you posted.