The Amazing Birthday Charity Rally
Family birthday party raises money and groceries for area Food Bank
Donna Hedrick was born and raised in the Dayton area. Her family has always enjoyed celebrating birthdays in traditional ways. But as the family has grown with marriages and grandchildren, getting everyone together several times a year has become more and more challenging. So Don na came up with an idea to celebrate all the birthdays from the last half of the year on one occasion, and to turn it into a charity event she named, “The Amazing Birthday Charity Rally.”
So on Saturday night, November 14, 30 family members gathered at 6 pm, put on team-colored tee-shirts, and received their packets and instructions. Each team had cameras to film their events that were shown at the end of the party. The stops were scheduled in a staggered fashion so they wouldn't all show up at the same place at the same time. By 7 pm, the cars were on the road!
The 6 “rally stops” included some dress-up silliness and fun, but also some service activities, interviewing police and firefighters, and a major stop at the local Kroger store where they purchased groceries for the Food Bank's local “Miamisburg Helping Hands”. The goal of each group was to purchase as close to $50 worth of food as possible. All the groups were within a few cents of that target, and one of the groups hit it right on the penny! The teams earned extra points if they got strangers to join in the activities which made for some fun filming.
Each person also brought all the loose change from their homes and competed for the “most unique container” prize. The winner was a replica of a 2-cylinder engine with spark plugs and exhaust ports! During the rally, they dropped the coins into a Spiral Wishing Well coin funnel at the Kroger store. Along with the money tossed in by customers over the weekend, the total collected was $591.26. The Well was provided by Mike Peebles of Irongate Realtors.
Doug Bowman, the Miamisburg Kroger manager said, “We were very glad to host a Spiral Wishing Well for the weekend to help raise money for the local Food Bank. It was fun to watch the parents and children being fascinated by the spinning coins. Our employees loved it too. Thank you for including Kroger in your charity birthday rally, and for gathering up $300 worth of groceries. The Food Bank just told me last week that they are really having a hard time supplying enough food in this tough economic period. So your timing was great.”
“This was a fun event for our family, and we were glad to be able to help the Food Bank in the process,” reported Hedrick.
What if every family in the area did this? According to the Wishing Well website (www.spiralwishingwells.com), the average home in America has $50 worth of coins in jars, under seat cushions, and in laundry rooms. Every week, there are 5,890,775 birthdays in America , and birthdays are the number one reason people celebrate. With a “charity birthday” emphasis, these kinds of events could raise untold amounts of money and food for those in need. The wishing well website lists several charity party ideas that can stimulate creativity for family events.
If just one local family can produce $300 worth of food and almost $600 in loose change, imagine what would happen if several other families in this area did the same thing. “That would be exciting and wonderful,” says Sue Hubert of Helping Hands. “This economy has really made it difficult for us to provide enough food for the needy families in our area.”
As you plan your holiday parties and future birthday parties, give some thought to focusing on a charity theme. Your generosity will make a HUGE difference for families that are struggling in these tough times.
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Contact: Steve Divnick
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