This festive group was hard at work on Friday August 23, 2019. KindCraft families gathered at the Ball Conference Center in Olathe to sort supplies and assemble special birthday bags for foster children served by KVC Kansas.
Our night began gathered together to learn about what it means to be a foster child. KVC's Emily Wheeler told the families about the kids they serve and how not every foster parent is able to have a birthday celebration for each foster child in their care. She talked about how this can be a very scary time for the foster child and that the birthday bags bring comfort and joy to them during this hard time. KindCrafters work is SO important! Thousands of birthday supplies were spread all around the BIG conference room. Children were instructed to sort the items into categories-cake mix, frosting, candles, gifts, paper cups, paper plates, etc. Believe it or not, this is the only picture we have of the sorting!! The kids worked so hard and so efficiently, it was done in a matter of minutes.
Once everything was sorted, families and friends gathered around about 25 tables to make birthday cards and to decorate birthday crowns. There were families with children, dads with sons, a Girl Scout troop, a volleyball team, and grandparents with grandkids. Age makes no difference when it comes to being kind and we love seeing the variety of groups who attend our events!
Next up was assembling the birthday bags. Kids were able to choose a birthday bag they liked and then went about choosing items for their bag. Of course the "toy" table was a popular one and the kids were encouraged to take their time and not rush through their work. We asked them to think about the special child who would receive their birthday bag and how much it will mean to them.
We lined up all the bags and asked the kids to take a picture so that they can remember how kind they were to someone they don't even know! Our goal was to count the bags but we were so busy with walking the bags out to the truck to go to the warehouse that we forgot! We are guesstimating about 200 birthday bags!
These two friends were having a blast together and love seeing our older girls having fun as well!
Everyone worked together to help load the truck!
Our student ambassadors did an amazing job modeling kindness, helping small children as needed, providing tape for the item lists, as well as setting up and cleaning up the entire event. We could not run our events so smoothly without their assistance!
Many returning KindCrafters were in attendance and we are so happy to see the same sweet faces event after event. We LOVE that you want to come back and serve!
There were new families in attendance as well and we hope they felt welcomed with open arms. We sure are excited to get to know your families and LOVE that you came to spread kindness!
If you are interested in attending a KindCraft event, please visit our website to register: www.kindcraft.org and click on "Get Involved". We also have sponsorship opportunities if you would like to support our monthly events. Please send any inquiries to courtney@kindcraft.org.