Shelter Children to Have Birthday Party
Antelope Valley Press
Joanna Parsons, July 2001
LANCASTER – Birthday celebrations are among the most cherished of childhood memories, but parties are hard to come by for kids living in shelters.
A group of mothers is trying to make sure children at the Valley Oasis Domestic Violence Shelter will have pleasant memories of their birthdays.
MOMS Clubs are collecting party supplies and unwrapped toys from around the Antelope Valley to present to the Domestic Violence shelter as part of a Valley-wide project, “Happy Birthdays!” The supplies will be used for birthday parties for the children staying at the shelter.
MOMS – Moms Offering Moms Support – is an international non-profit support group for stay-at-home mothers. There are three chapters in the Antelope Valley, and club events include activities for mother and child and community service-type projects.
Happy Birthdays! is the brainchild of Lana Linstruth, president of the MOMS Club of East Palmdale. Linstruth is taking classes as part of the Self-Expression Leadership Program, a Los Angeles-based program that teaches individuals and organizations how to be leaders and effective communicators.
As part of the course, participants came up with a community project that dealt with effectiveness, leadership, communication and relationship, thus, the Happy Birthdays! project was born.
So far several businesses are participating by displaying a box for customers to put in toy and party decoration donations. A bank in Burbank gave the MOMS Club six cases of toys, and Party City of Palmdale donated seven boxes of party supplies.
Linstruth anticipates presenting the shelter with 15 boxes of birthday supplies and goodies by Aug. 1. Each box would contain enough supplies for a party of 30 children, including goody bags, for each child and presents for the birthday child.
The shelter, which is operated through the Antelope Valley Domestic Violence Council, houses 25 to 30 children a month, and this doesn’t include the children in the shelter’s outreach and transitional programs.
An average of five children each month have a birthday in the shelter, said Trish Jones, assistant director for the Antelope Valley Domestic Violence Council.
“The biggest benefit is, it assists us in assisting clients to provide parties for their child,” Jones said. “We know parties can be costly.”
Although the shelter has put together birthday parties for children before, the Happy Birthdays! project will be more consistent and the staff can focus more on working with the family.
“It’s a fabulous project,” Jones said. “And it’s just one more example of how the community can help us to provide for happy, healthy families.”
Party donations accepted at five locations
In addition, Linstruth’s idea is already spreading to other MOMS Club chapters. A chapter in Riverside has started its own Happy Birthdays! project, and it is Linstruth’s hope that it will be a worldwide project.
The MOMS Club plans to collect supplies and toys, and present 15 boxes to the shelter every three months, and if there’s a chance, Linstruth would like to expand the activity to include needy children who aren’t at the shelter.
People can drop off their donations at the following locations: Michaels Arts & Crafts, 44410 Valley Central Way in Lancaster; Kidz Rax, 42741 45th St. West in Quartz Hill; Kidz Rax II, 44158 10th St. West in Lancaster; Funland USA at the Palmdale Marketplace; and Brunswick Vista Lanes, 38241 30th St. East in Palmdale.
Reprinted from the Antelope Valley Press, Sunday, July 15, 2001, Palmdale, California, USA.