It is no secret that COVID-19 has caused enough chaos to make 2020 feel like a never-ending nightmare. However, even with new challenges, the Birthdays for All community has continued making dreams come true. 

We achieved our goals this year due to our amazing support system that is continually growing and helping the hearts of so many across South Carolina. The Birthdays for All team started the year by expanding into covering all foster children in Berkeley County. While growing our community’s virtual platform, we also covered all of the birthdays submitted to us by DSS.

Our greatest challenge this year was keeping up momentum while ensuring the safety of our team by adhering to COVID-19 policies. While in-person events came to a pause, our ability to help others did not. By pivoting to online signups, our community can still donate, buy gifts, sponsor a month, and of course, spread the word! 

Getting to see smiles on kids’ faces makes it all worth it. We will be updating event schedules as soon as possible on birthdaysforall.org, and cannot wait to see you back in-person. Until then, keep continuing to make this community strong and gracious, it truly is what you do best.

It goes without saying that 2020 has been a year like no other. As an organization, Birthdays For All has been impacted like millions of others and have had to adapt to what has become the new normal. Since the beginning of the initial quarantine in March, we haven’t been able to get out in the community as much as we liked, with our giving trees, wrapping parties, and other events. Some group homes have had to streamline their birthday celebrations and have asked for gift cards instead for easier distribution. However, we have still continued to fulfill our mission to provide birthdays presents to children in foster care each month in the best way we can and we are incredibly grateful for the support we have received.

Huge thanks to Obviouslee Marketing, Thomas Hutton, CarMax, Sunrise Presbyterian Church, Mason Prep School and Asten Johnson for supporting us during this crazy time and enabling us to continue to give presents to the children we serve.

A special mention goes to the friends and family of the late Victoria “Tori” Mele who gave so generously in her memory.

We’re so thankful to have such an amazing community who have continued to support our cause during a difficult year.

Today is Giving Tuesday, which is another opportunity for you to join this global giving movement which started in 2012. We would be delighted for your consideration to support Birthdays For All and enable us to continue our work to improve the lives of the children in foster care.

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family, friends, and loved ones. Steffi and I always look forward to this time of year to celebrate with our family and eat lots of food. We recognize that we are incredibly lucky and privileged to have family around (at least the ones who live in the U.S) to celebrate.

After Thanksgiving, I got sucked into the Black Friday hysteria. I did it again yesterday on Cyber Monday. I must admit, I can’t resist a good bargain. I love going online to find the best deals, and of course I spend too much money on things that I probably don’t really need, but I convince myself that now is the best time to buy. And so I do.

Well today is Giving Tuesday, the global movement to inspire people to give back and transform their communities and the world. Giving Tuesday was launched in 2012 as a reaction to the increasing consumerist culture that is taking over our lives. Over the past seven years, Giving Tuesday has inspired hundreds of millions of people all over the world to give and celebrate generosity.

For me, Giving Tuesday serves as a reminder that there are many people who don’t have the same experience as me during the holiday season. As of June 30th 2019, there were 4,584 children in state custody. These children can’t spend time with their families on Thanksgiving. They can’t spend time searching for deals during the Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales.

So today, I hope you will join Giving Tuesday movement and give a little back to the initiatives you care about. We would be delighted for your consideration to support Birthdays For All and enable us to continue our work to improve the lives of the children in foster care in South Carolina by celebrating their birthdays.

As a small nonprofit run by volunteers, we depend on the support of the community to help us with our mission. This August, we want to thank Kristen Dietrich from Dietrich Speech and Language Services.  For the past 3 years, in honor of their daughter’s birthday, Kristen and her husband Andrew asked their friends and family to donate to Birthdays For All in lieu of birthday presents. This year Kristen decided to take her support a step further by hosting one of our Balloon Trees at her office. Dietrich Speech and Language Services and her team are hosting one of our Balloon Trees for the next few months to ensure that the children we serve get their birthday wishes. They will also be donating a dollar to Birthdays For All in honor of each of their patients’ birthdays.

We are so grateful to all of our supporters who have allowed us to continue to grow and deliver more birthday presents across South Carolina.

JM Designs Co. is a Michigan-based design company that specialize in hand-crafted stationary. They have a beautiful line of hand drawn birthday cards and just launched an awesome program to help us deliver more birthday cards to children in foster care.

At Birthdays For All, we strive to provide the full birthday experience to the children in foster care. Many of the children we serve are living in group homes, where resources are scarce. A thoughtful birthday card is a crucial part of that experience and serves as an important reminder of how special they are.

We are so happy that JM Designs Co have chosen to support Birthdays For All by sending us their beautiful cards on a regular basis.. For every card they sell, a card will be donated, so that we can make the birthday experience even better for the children we serve.

You can also help us by using our unique coupon code when you buy cards from them. Enter BDAY4ALL in the checkout process, and JM Designs Co will donate 20% of the total amount to Birthdays For All.

May is Foster Care Awareness month. So many people don’t realize there is a huge need for foster parents in South Carolina, or if they know about the need they don’t know what foster parenting entails or would look like for them. One of our Board Members, Sundae Johnson, is a current foster parent and last week she shared a personal and poignant Facebook post that really highlights the need for more foster parents in the Lowcountry.  She is happy for us to share her post here:

Birthdays For All was inspired by a series of articles from the Post and Courier about the state of foster care in South Carolina. It’s an honor to have Steffi interviewed in a recent article, but unfortunately, the story isn’t a happy one. Between 2012 and 2018, the number of children entering the Department of Social Services system increased from 3,100 to 4,600, according to data published by the Chronicle of Social Change.

The articles in 2015 told the story of the lack of foster parents that have led to more children being kept in group homes across the state. In 3 years, the situation has gotten worse, with more kids needing homes, but still not enough foster families to take them.

These kids often arrive at the group homes in bad circumstances, with no time to gather their belongings. The resources available are limited, which means they don’t get enough individual attention to celebrate a birthday. It’s our mission to make sure every child gets to celebrate their birthday.

We know that the problem won’t be solved overnight. But the simple joy of feeling special on your birthday is something we’ve been able to provide to more and more children who need it each year.

We are thankful that we’ve had the support of so many people in the local Charleston community to help us achieve this. People at organizations such as Carolina Ice Palace, Massage Envy in Mt Pleasant, Footlight Players, Little Gym of West Ashley, Ohm Radio and 82 Queen, to name a few, have done amazing things to support our cause.

Please donate help us continue our growth to provide more birthday presents to more children.

We are so excited to announce our partnership with Chaos Coffee! Not only are they an amazing coffee company (I mean everyone can use a little Unicorn Attitude  in their life) they also truly care about making the lives of foster children a little brighter on their birthdays! This month they are donating a portion of their profits to Birthdays For All! They also have a section of their website dedicated to our mission. This partnership combines two of my favorite things, caffeine and birthday presents!

Chaos Coffee makes delicious coffee, they also make a difference in the community. The founder of Chaos Coffee reached out to me about how our cause was close to his heart. He knew his company could make a difference in the lives of children in foster care and wanted to partner with us to help ensure the children would have happy birthday memories to look back on during an otherwise difficult time. We are so grateful to have the support of Chaos Coffee. When companies have an awesome product and an awesome heart to help we need to support them! Please grab a bag of Inasnutty, Unicorn Attitude and Daredevil today!

If nothing else, y’all have to check out their packaging!  Just look at their mascot for their Unicorn Attitude flavor! #tooadorable #delicioustoo

We hope that you had a special time this past Thanksgiving to celebrate all the things that you can be thankful for. Steffi and I spent the day with family, which now consists of lots of young children who got to play and be crazy together. We ate a tremendous amount of food, and still got to take enough leftovers to feed us for the entire weekend. We’re very fortunate to have so much to be thankful for.

November 28th 2017 is Giving Tuesday, the global giving movement that follows Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Giving Tuesday gives us all the opportunity to give back to our communities. This year is the 3rd Giving Tuesday event that Birthdays For All are participating in.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been less than 3 years since we started Birthdays For All. The idea was inspired by a series of articles from the Post and Courier about the state of foster care in South Carolina. The lack of foster parents led to more children being kept in group homes, and do not get enough individual attention to celebrate a birthday. We wanted to make sure every child got to celebrate their birthday.

At the time, the federal statistics showed that in 25% of foster children in South Carolina under the age of 13 were living in group homes, compared to the national average of 4%. Over the past 3 years, the situation has gotten worse. According to a recent article in the Post and Courier, the number of foster children in South Carolina has grown substantially in the past few years.

We know that the problem is incredibly complicated and won’t be solved overnight. But the simple joy of feeling special on your birthday is something we know we can and have achieved for hundreds of foster children. It was an honor to be recognized by an article about Birthdays For All in the Post and Courier earlier this year for what we’ve been doing.

We are so thankful that we’ve had the support of so many in the local Charleston community to help us with our cause. People at organizations such as Movement Mortgage, Levelwing, Asten Johnson, ObviousLee Marketing and Sol Kitchen, to name a few, have done amazing things to provide birthday presents.

On Giving Tuesday, we hope that you consider joining our own little movement to celebrate every foster child’s birthday in South Carolina. You can define your Giving Tuesday story by making a gift today.