DECEMBER 9, 2016, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
KeizerCommunity
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Every child deserves a birthday party
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
When Laura Perez, former
principal at Whiteaker Mid-
dle School, returned from a
mission trip to Mexico com-
mitted to make a difference
in her community, she met
with Sheronne Blasi, and the
two friends went on a long
walk.
“We just had a shared vi-
sion for the work we’d like to
do and the impact we’d like
to have in our community,”
Perez said.
That vision was Simply
Birthdays, a non-profi t cre-
ated by Perez and Blasi that
holds birthday parties at two
local homeless shelters—Si-
monka Place in Keizer and
Salem Interfaith Hospitality
Network, as well as provides
party supplies for the Center
for Hope and Safety.
“I grew up in poverty and
didn’t really have birthday
parties,” Blasi said. “So when
we heard about work like
this, for me it was very, very
personal.”
The parties, which are
held each month, begin with
crafts and games.
The kids then sing Happy
Birthday, blow out the candles,
eat cake and then open pres-
ents.
Thanks to generous dona-
tions, each birthday child re-
ceives four to fi ve gifts total-
Submitted
A child blows out hel candles duling a palty at a local homeless
sheltel plovided by the non-plofi t Simply Bilthdays.
ing about $75.
The rest of the kids and
parents are given goodie bags
and books.
“This is one of those ex-
periences that provides some
normalization for kids,” Per-
ez said. “When they can go
to school on Monday and
talk about their birthday
party, that’s a shared experi-
ence that a lot of kids have
so they’re able to talk about
all the kids that came to their
party and the presents that
they got and the activities
that they did.”
At Simonka, there are typ-
ically 12-15 kids and another
20 adults.
Perez remembers one
of the fi rst parties when a
woman living at the shelter
who just couldn’t believe
they were there, shook and
pressed two dollar bills in her
hand afterwards.
“I don’t have much but
this is to help with the next
party,” the woman said.
“There have been many
parties where either the
birthday child or the mom
will come up afterwards and
say to us ‘thank you, this is
my best birthday ever’ or ‘this
is my only birthday party’
and to have a child say ‘this is
my best birthday’ and they’re
living in a homeless shelter.
That says a lot,” Blasi said.
While providing birth-
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KEIZERTIMES/Delek Wiley
Shelonne Blasi, left, and Laula Pelez, folmel plincipal of Whiteakel Middle School cleated
Simply Bilthdays two yeals ago.
days parties to children who
wouldn’t otherwise have one
is Simply Birthday’s primary
mission, Blasi and Perez also
want to help people see a dif-
ferent face for homelessness.
“A lot of times people
do want to get involved and
they want to help the com-
munity but they’re not ex-
actly sure how to do that so
this is their fi rst step in,” Per-
ez said. “So they might come
to our party and they might
help hand out cake and ice
cream or goodie bags but
that got them in the shelter.
There are other things they
can do once they come in.
It gets them in the door so
we do have a secondary mis-
sion that’s pretty important as
well.”
Blasi said the support of
the community has been
“overwhelming” and “awe-
inspiring.”
Marco Polo Global Res-
taurant in Salem has pro-
vided a personalized cake for
every birthday child over the
past two years. Keizer Cham-
ber, Rotary and Fire Depart-
ment and many others have
also donated to the cause.
“I would like people to
know how much I appreci-
ate their support,” Perez said.
“We couldn’t sustain this.
There’s no way. We wouldn’t
have the resources. We don’t
have the time. We’ve talked
so many times how mean-
ingful that is to us.”
When a group of West-
ern Oregon University stu-
dents organized a party for a
class project, they came back
transformed.
“They were all excited
but it wasn’t actually until
they came to the shelter and
interacted with the kids did
they really realize the im-
pact that they were having
and their professor at West-
ern told us for a lot of those
kids, that one experience and
that day that they spent at
the shelter was just transfor-
mational for them because a
lot of those kids had never
interacted with the home-
less population,” Blasi said.
“We’re trying to communi-
cate to the community about
what homelessness really
looks like so the other thing
we would absolutely love is
for people to reach out to us
and if they’re at all interested,
to come to a party, to volun-
teer at a party.”
For more information on
Simply Birthdays, including
dates of parties and other
ways to help, visit simply-
birthdays.org.