Brighter Birthdays
By Thomas Speed '21 - '21
Recently, the Upper School Design Thinking class began working with Mrs. Cristin Warden, founder of the Brighter Birthdays organization, to prepare birthday bags for a local school.
Brighter Birthdays is a Rome, Ga. based non-profit that provides birthday party items, gifts, basic toiletries, school supplies and sweet treats in a backpack to children in our community that are unable to celebrate their birthdays in a traditional way. Items are needed to fill more than 2,000 backpacks for next school year. Children are identified by their school administrators, guidance counselors and teachers and backpacks are then provided to the schools for distribution.
Brighter Birthdays founder, Cristin Warden, states, “We are looking to cover all children in need in Floyd County and Rome City elementary schools next school year. Item donations by local businesses and individuals are so appreciated and these donations make what we do possible.”
Examples of items that have been donated in the past include: pens, pencils, toothbrushes, toothpaste, lip balm, stickers, jump ropes, frisbees, beach balls, cups, gift cards from restaurants, crayons, coloring pages, sunglasses as well as the drawstring backpacks themselves. The bags are provided to children in grades pre-K to sixth.
One local elementary school student commented, “I liked getting the bag, because it meant someone was thinking about me on my birthday”
The Design Thinking class is excited to announce that Darlington School will be adopting a local school to provide 600 birthday bags to during the 2018-19 school year. Our class is planning a donation drive for Upper School advisory groups and information will be provided to students and faculty soon.
If you would like more information about the Brighter Birthdays organization or would like to donate supplies, please contact Cristin Warden at 706-266-2889 or email at cwarden@brighterbirthdays.org.
Cristin Warden is the mother of current students Caroline ('23) and Izzie ('21).
