Since January 2023, Catholic Daughters Court #2278 at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, 19002 N. 128th Ave., has been participating in a “Birthday Bag” project, designed to help the families served by the Valley View Community Food Bank. Members have been filling a “birthday bag” with cake mix, frosting, candles, paper plates, napkins, balloons, paper crown, plastic table cloth and other items needed to have a birthday celebration.

“We were looking for a project that would help families and decided if people are having trouble meeting their everyday necessities, it follows they might not have the money to celebrate a birthday,” explained Pat Michel, birthday bag committee member.

Judy Penman, committee member, said many of the ladies also donate money towards the project and the committee does the shopping.

“If someone sees cake mix or frosting on sale, they’ll grab up a bargain to help us make up a bag,” Judy Penman said.

Valley View Community Food Bank Owner Jesse Ramirez told committee member Dorothy Alexander and Carol Strazer, that people’s faces light up when they get the bags, since no one expects to get something like this at a food bank.

“Since we adopted this project, our Catholic Daughters Court has delivered 222 bags to the Valley View Food Bank. Our goal with this project was to make life a little brighter for our birthday bag recipients, and to strengthen the families of our community by giving them an opportunity to play together and make some wonderful memories,“ said committee member Helen Baie.

Individuals interested in making a monetary donation can send it to the Catholic Daughters Court #2278, in care of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 19002 N. 128th Ave.

Call Helen 623-584-1227 or Judy 661-755-2774.