"Celebrate and Donate"

This year for the kids' birthdays we decided that it would be fun to host a food drive. And that instead of the kids' friends bringing them gifts they could bring them food which would then be donated to the Utah Food Bank. Hence, the "Celebrate and Donate." Since the three of them have birthdays around the holidays it makes it really hard to plan and follow through with their yearly parties. So, with Keri's birthday coming up we thought it would be nice to combine the three together.
After all the planning and calling I think their party was a great success...
We played fun party games, had cider and doughnuts, and then had a huge raffle. (For every 5 cans of food that someone brought they got a raffle ticket. You could also win more tickets for the raffle by playing and winning the games...)




For the raffle we had many sponsors donate ALL of the prizes. A BIG THANK YOU to LHM Chevy for donating the Ipod Touch. And many other sponsors, such as; Little Caesars, Kneaders, Marie Calendars, Chic-Fil-A, Roxberry, Corner Bakery, Boondocks, Red Balloon, Fresh Market, Cafe Rio, Discount Tire, Fire House, and much more. It was amazing to see how all of the local companies were so willing to donate once they knew what we were doing. Many of them wanted to do more. Mark and I were a little overwhelmed by their generosity. Thank you, thank you, thank you...


After the party there was a lot of LOADING...


and UNLOADING...


We got to the Food Bank 15 minutes before they closed on Saturday. But they were so excited to see us. When I went to fill out the information for our receipt one of the volunteers couldn't believe that we generated this much food from a birthday party. She told the kids that this was the best story she had heard of in a long time and that they should be proud of what they accomplished.
The kids' goal for the party was to donate 1000 lbs. of food to the Food Bank.
When the volunteers loaded the food onto scale it read "974" lbs. Everyone who was there helping to unload said that wasn't right. Before we knew it one of the volunteers lifted up a case of food and put it in the box. The scale then read "1000 lbs." WAY TO GO!!!


We still have more food that the kids' friends who weren't able to be there have donated. Once everything is hauled off to the Food Bank we will be well over our goal of 1000 lbs. Not to mention everything else.
What an amazing experience! We are so grateful to all who "celebrated and donated" with us!
(The kids look a little tired in some of the pictures, but that's because they worked their butts off..)
GOOD JOB GUYS! YOU DID GREAT!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!