SEATTLE — Anyone looking to relieve themselves of the guilt and excessive amounts of leftover Halloween candy might want to consider donating it to a local non-profit that will put it to good use.
Birthday Dreams was founded 12 years ago by two local moms who saw a need that no other local organization was filling. Chris Spahn and Shannon Avery created Birthday Dreams to support children experiencing homelessness.
“We work with over eight shelters in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties to celebrate children who would otherwise not have the means for a birthday party,” Spahn said.
A passionate team of volunteers assembles all of the ingredients needed for a special celebration. They even bake and hand-deliver a birthday-in-a-box for every request. Everything from party hats to balloons is packed up and prepared specially for each child.
“The goodie bags are an important way for the birthday boy or girl to thank their friends and the people who celebrating them.”
Each goodie bag contains some toys and candy. Halloween candy has become an important part of party planning. Birthday Dreams is currently accepting wrapped Halloween candy donations to help fulfill more party requests.
The non-profit believes every child needs a day where they can forget about their situation, have fun, be honored, and remember their community cares about them.
Candy donations can be dropped off at the Birthday Dreams offices in Renton and financial donations can be accepted through their website at www.BirthdayDreams.org.
This week, volunteer driver Jim Waugh packed up a party-to-go and made his 1,000th Birthday Dreams drop-off.
“I go to the different shelters and they constantly tell me what a big difference it makes to have Birthday Dreams deliver a birthday package to them for the kids. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have anything,” Waugh explained.
This year, local recycling company Ridwell is also collecting Halloween candy from customers and will deliver the candy to Birthday Dreams.
So far, the organization has celebrated more than 10,000 local children and the team hopes your donations will make this year even sweeter.