The Laker/Lutz News

Belinda Leto

Avalon Applauds Celebrate Birthdays

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Congratulations to Celebrate Birthdays, a nonprofit based in Tampa, for being applauded by Avalon Park Wesley Chapel.

Celebrate Birthdays’ mission is to ensure that every foster child and all children, ages 1 through 18, regardless of personal or financial circumstances, has the opportunity to celebrate their birthday. The nonprofit services Pasco, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.

Celebrate Birthdays’ Co-founders Celina Saunders and Belinda Leto

Co-founders Belinda Leto and Celina Saunders are full-time nurses by trade who met 18 years ago. They discovered in 2017 a need to help children celebrate their birthdays when they delivered Christmas presents to children of incarcerated individuals.

A recipient’s grandmother asked Leto and Saunders if they knew anyone who could help her celebrate her grandson’s birthday, as she did not even have the means for a cake.

Heartbroken and eager to help, Leto and Saunders immediately started calling local places and couldn’t find any reliable resources.

“In our area there’s over 6,000 children in foster care and over half of them have never celebrated a birthday,” says Leto. “We realized we had plenty of room right here in our own backyard to make an impact.”

Leto and Saunders officially founded Celebrate Birthdays in 2019.

“We didn’t go into this intending that it was going to be a nonprofit, but we just realized a need that was out there in our community and we wanted to make sure that we could help fill that void,” says Leto.

Due to the COVID pandemic, Celebrate Birthdays now hosts a limited number of in-person parties a month, as well as offers a ‘Birthday in a Box,’ which it created out of necessity.

“It’s a 10×10 box filled with 16 different items that includes everything a child would need to celebrate their birthday, wherever they’re at,” says Leto.

Leto and her team try to cater the boxes to what that particular child likes, and has about 19 different themes to choose from such as sports, movies, etc.

Items include streamers, candles, cake mix, etc. The nonprofit also sends a gift valued at $25 and a free book to help promote literacy.

Celebrate Birthdays delivers up to 100 boxes a month, and each box costs about $50.

“When you see the joy on a child’s face when somebody remembers them on their special day, I almost feel like this should be a basic necessity,” says Leto. She hopes these small moments will give them long-lasting memories.

Celebrate Birthdays also launched a program in August called Classroom Birthday Bins, for title one and low income schools, that include items like stickers, a birthday crown, notebooks, pencil, wristband, and more.

“We want to make sure that the child is celebrated…and it helps the teachers who don’t have a lot of resources,” says Leto.

Leto says there are numerous ways to volunteer, whether it’s packing birthday boxes, hosting a gift drive, or donating monetarily.

Stay up to date with Celebrate Birthdays at CelebrateBirthdays.org or follow them on Facebook (@celebrateBirthdays19) or Instagram (@celebratebirthdays). Donations can be dropped off at 611 N. New Jersey Ave., Tampa, FL 33609.

Published September 22, 2021

Helping children to have a Happy Birthday

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Birthday parties and children seem to go together naturally — but some children are in situations in which his or her birthday can be overlooked.

That’s where Celebrate Birthdays, a nonprofit organization, comes in.

It collaborates with organizations and agencies to find foster kids, other kids with certain needs or kids in clubs, to throw a birthday party for them.

The Celebrate Birthdays organization provides children throughout the Tampa Bay area with elaborate parties for their own birthdays. (Courtesy of Belinda Leto)

Belinda Leto and Celina Saunders founded Celebrate Birthdays.

They go to various locations and throw a monthly birthday party, for all of the children at that particular place celebrating a birthday that month.

The festivities include cake, ice cream, games, activities and presents for all the children at the party — whether they are celebrating their birthday or not, Leto said.

“We want every kid to feel special,” she said.

“It makes them look forward to when it’s their birthday, knowing we’ll show up consistently,” Saunders said. “We do not disappoint.”

The idea for creating Celebrate Birthdays came up two years ago, when Leto was involved in her church’s gift donation program.

She said she was approached by a grandmother who asked whether there were  local services that provided birthday gifts for children.

Leto didn’t know, so she reached out to a friend who worked for Hillsborough County. She found out that the county wasn’t aware of such programs either.

So, Leto and Saunders set out to fill that gap.

“That was the initial spark and seed that really started the idea,” Leto said.

Celebrate Birthdays began serving children, and in March, it was officially recognized as a nonprofit organization.

News of the program’s existence has spread mostly through word of mouth and social media.

The organization also collaborates with organizations such as the Joshua House and the Boys & Girls Club, who refer children to Celebrate Birthdays.

Even a local Girl Scout troop has assisted the effort by collecting gifts and forming a bond with a “birthday buddy.”

“It’s kids helping kids,” Leto remarked. “It doesn’t get much better than that.”

Children who are not part of an organization are not overlooked, she said.

With “Birthday in a Box,” gifts and birthday supplies are stocked up in individual boxes to be sent to children’s homes.

However, community support is needed to keep spreading the joy.

The organization receives gift donations from individuals and various establishments.

Some local businesses accept toy donations on their premises for the organization.

And, Celebrate Birthdays hosts fundraisers and applies for grants, as well.

Volunteers pitch in, too, including high school students.

Leto and Saunders also have recruited their own children to help.

The organization currently covers Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties, with intentions to branch out into Hardee and Highlands counties.

Being part of Celebrate Birthdays is rewarding, Saunders said.

“I think there’s a different feel when you are volunteering your time and not expecting anything in return,” she said.

Being in a position to help the children makes her appreciate her blessings all the more, she said.

“It’s such an overwhelming sense of gratitude. There’s not a price tag on that,” Saunders said.

To learn more about the nonprofit or to make an online donation, please visit CelebrateBirthdays.org.

Published October 23, 2019