Group buys birthday presents for kids in need

Birthday presents for their children makes mothers happy.

Eight mothers at Benedictine Aid and Relief for Neighbors got to see their children open gifts on their birthdays so far in September.

The children might not have gotten anything if not for the Birthday Fairy Program sponsored by the Dominion Woman’s Club, said Becky Goodman, the community resources director for BARN, a non-profit, non-denominational organization that provides services and shelter for homeless women and their children in the Prince William County area.

“The mothers feel so much better because who wants to have a kid’s birthday without a birthday gift?” Goodman said. “It’s just been a wonderful experience seeing the children getting a gift, and it’s a surprise gift.”

BARN hasn’t had any recent programs to make sure children get birthday presents. It’s been a hit-or-miss proposition.

Sometimes the mothers in the program, aimed at getting women back to work and into their own homes, had the money for a present and sometimes they didn’t, Goodman said.

BARN sometimes has a stash of toys, but the toys weren’t always age- or gender-appropriate.

“It wasn’t happening at all,” Goodman said of birthday celebrations at the Bristow charity. “Some of these kids just were not getting birthday gifts.”
Stephanie Sturges, club spokeswoman, said the organization heard of BARN’s need for gifts from its work with other area charities, including Vint Hill Transitional Housing and Fauquier Family Housing.

Sturges said the program is designed to ease mothers’ minds when birthdays roll around.

“The whole object of the program is to change the stress on the mom during the birthday and to show her that we’re thinking of her too,” Sturges said.

The program, which first came before the club at its July business meeting, attracted enough participation to serve BARN residents for the next year, Sturges said.
BARN usually has 14 families in residence and serves roughly 18 families each year.

Now the woman’s group wants to expand and is inviting the general public to join in and agree to buy $25 to $35 gifts for needy children when birthdays pop up.

The group’s Home Life Committee will soon give birthday presents to the Mommy In Need program at Youth for Tomorrow and plans to expand the program even further,

But before expansion takes place, the group wants to make sure there will be enough presents when the time comes, Sturges said.

“It takes a little investigating on the club’s part because we want to be sure we have more than enough volunteers to take care of every single child and their mother,” Sturges said. “We want to be proactive about it and make sure we have plenty of volunteers before telling organizations that we’re going to commit to it.”

People who are interested in the program can call the Dominion Woman’s Club at 703-732-8539 or visit dominion-womansclub.org.

Sturges said $25 to $35 can buy a pretty good birthday present for a child. She recently went to Target and got a nice gift for a little girl.

“It was just less than $30 and I got her this great My Little Pony with the little bottle and all that stuff,” Sturges said.

The woman’s club usually buys gift certificates for the mothers, Sturges said.

The children don’t know the presents are coming, Goodman said.

“It’s an extra treat that they’re not expecting,” she said. “It’s just beautiful.”

Manassas Bureau Chief Keith Walker can be reached at 703-369-6751.