Almost everyone remembers what it's like to have a birthday party or can remember their favorite birthday memory of their family and friends celebrating them. But unfortunately that's not the case for every child.
This year the The Under Armour® / Jordan Spieth Championship Junior-Am fundraising tournament had a new benefiting charity; The Birthday Party Project. Our tournament host this week's charity The Jordan Spieth Family Foundation has three pillars revolved around developing youth, making The Birthday Party Project a perfect tie in to JSFF's mission as well as the AJGA's.
Headquartered in Dallas, The Birthday Party Project's mission is to bring joy to children experiencing homelessness through the magic of a birthday celebration. Paige Chenault, founder of TBPP, believes that every child deserves to be seen, known and celebrated no matter their current living situation.
When Chenault was pregnant with her daughter, she dreamed of all the ways she could celebrate her daughter she said. She saw a TIMES article about children in Haiti filled with powerful images of children and thought, "what about them." In that moment she realized that there are kids out there who will never get the chance to feel celebrated.
With a fire lit in her belly, she crafted the idea of The Birthday Party Project. Chenault knew the idea was right but struggled with exactly where she should start.
"Instead of getting to kids in really hard to reach places, why wouldn't I just start in my backyard? There are so many children experiencing homeless in my backyard and I needed to do something about that," Chenault said.
She launched The Birthday Party Project out of her house and partnered with only one agency. Chenault committed to one year of celebrations at Family Gateway and The Birthday Party Project took off. By the third party there, people were knocking on her door handing her gifts and birthday supplies.
After five years of running a nonprofit as well as having a full time job, Chenault gave up her job and moved all of her attention to The Birthday Party Project and has never looked back.
Now in it's tenth year, Chenault and The Birthday Party Project have celebrated 19,000 birthdays with kids and 63,000 children have attended parties across the 20 U.S. markets they are located in.
The AJGA staff for the Under Armour / Jordan Spieth Championship had the opportunity to give back to The Birthday Party Project. The team went to their warehouse in downtwon Dallas to help stuff favor bags and spend time with TBPP staff members. It meant a lot to the AJGA staff of this event to be able to give back to the benefiting charity off the golf course.
"We all have something to give, weather it is financial, time or talent," Chenault said. "Everyone has a way that they can give in pretty much any scenario if we just take the time to audit our skill sets and desires."
Juniors in the 9th annual event hosted by Jordan Spieth also got in on the fun by donating new toys, games and books during tournament registration on Monday.
If you would like to get involved with The Birthday Party Project visit thebirthdaypartyproject.org .