The West Milford Women’s Empowerment and Equality Club set out to raise awareness for a meaningful cause through the Birthday Cake Drive, and the results were truly inspiring. This drive was organized to help ensure that every child can feel celebrated on their special day, no matter what their family’s financial position may be. The club asked the school and community for donations of cake mixes, frostings, candles, clear sodas, baking tins, and birthday plates and napkins. With the incentive of a donut class party and some
teachers giving extra credit, if one donated to the collection, bins quickly became filled with many mixes and icing, along with colorful paper goods and decorations,
The drive’s success was made possible by the dedication of the students involved in WMWEE as well as their advisor, Cheryl Botsolas, who helped to organize collections across the school and social media platforms, promoted the event, sorted through dona-tions, and eventually assem-bled the kits.
Many people were surprised to learn that some-thing as simple as a birthday cake is not always accessible for every family, and the drive gave everyone a unique
opportunity to change that.
By the end of the collection period, enough supplies had been collected to make an impressive 132 birthday cake kits. That is 132 different birthdays that will now be properly celebrated thanks to the generosity of our school and community.
These kits were dis-tributed to various food pantries in West Milford and the surrounding areas, which is well beyond the original expectations.
Thanks to the kindness and enthusiasm of everyone involved, countless children will be able to enjoy a birthday cake and the feeling of being celebrated.