Our February KindCraft event was a blast!

221 KindCrafters worked together to assemble Birthday Bags for kids at Cornerstones of Care and Rose Brooks Center. This event was put together in honor of a very special girl who loved to serve others and was known for her kindness.

Stella Cleo Turnbull was a Girl Scout Junior in fourth grade at Harmony Elementary School. Stella was a brave, creative, kind, adventurous person who loved life and was always willing to try new things. She was known as an incredibly thoughtful person who would stand up for those who were unable to stand up for themselves, someone who would wait for the rest of the class to get paired up for a project and ask to work with the person who didn’t have a partner in the end. In addition to her thoughtfulness, Stella was brave and embraced her own unique style. She shaved funky lines into her hair and refused to wear pink; she was fierce and fearless and loved trying new things. She also adored animals and had an uncanny ability to sound just like a dog barking or a horse neighing.

KindCraft met with Stella's mom to learn about her and designed an event that would benefit kids in our community, as well as reflect what Stella's character was all about. Her mom mentioned that Stella would have LOVED participating in KindCraft events.

Many of Stella's classmates from Harmony Elementary School were in attendance to show their support. Believe it or not, this event filled in about ONE hour and had our longest waitlist to date-nearly 90 families were on the waiting list to attend this event.

We were so lucky to have Vicky Leitnaker, the Community Relations Manager from Cornerstones of Care come out to talk briefly with KindCraft families last night. She talked about the kids that go to Gillis and how some of them have NEVER celebrated their birthday! She said that they have kids that stay there who have gone through major traumas and need a safe place to stay.

Vicky told the kids a little story too. She said she kept candy in her office and the kids would stop by to see her and this one little boy would always to visit her.

One day he brought her a little hot wheels car. She said that the kids do not have a great deal of toys or possessions, but he wanted to give her this car. She said, “Oh that is so sweet but I know that car is special to you and you should keep it."

He said, “I want you to keep it so you can always remember me.” Vicky said, “I think that’s all any of these kids want, is to be remembered!

Thank you Vicky for taking time out of your busy schedule to come talk to us! Your stories really hit home with the kids!

We want to thank all of the families that donated supplies for this event. We had over 2000 balloons, 200+ large lollipops, 1000+ glow sticks, 600+streamers, 200+bubbles, and 250+ birthday bags. It was truly a team effort between families, schools, scout groups, and monetary donations that were used by KindCraft to purchase all of the supplies! THANK YOU FOR YOUR DONATIONS!

Some KindCrafters chose to start by decorating birthday crowns-they used crayons, foam stickers, and "jewels" to make them as festive as possible! Walking around, it was noisy, as friends colored, laughed, and chatted together.

Other KindCrafters rushed to the assembly line to fill their bags. It was fun hearing the kids decided which color bag they would fill. "I'm going to do a pink bag because mine is for a girl," said one KindCrafter. They carefully picked out exactly what color streamers and balloons coordinated best and did a great job putting the glow sticks and lollipops in very carefully.

Thank you Candice Diddle with InstaFunKC Photobooth for donating your time and services at our Birthday Bag event. I think families really enjoyed this! The line was long all night long, but worth every bit of the wait! Love seeing families having FUN serving together.

We are so appreciative of all of our participants. Look at these beautiful smiles from KIDS making a difference in their community!

We found this note on our table at the end of the night. To whoever wrote this, we want to say THANK YOU for coming!!

Huge shout out to our event sponsor, Jared Brunton with EXP Realty for sponsoring our Birthday Bag event last night. We appreciate his whole family coming to the event and being a part of this special night! Please contact Jared for more information on two promotions he offered to participants last night! He can be reached 913-220-3066, and his email is jared.brunton@exprealty.com

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