LACEY - Members of the Little Flowers Girls Club at Sacred Heart Parish spent hours planning and assembling “Birthday in a Bag” kits for clients at Care Net Pregnancy Center of Olympia.
“Each birthday bag we have put together makes the person who receives it realize how special they are in God’s eyes,” said 8-year-old Laura Mock, a member of the club for girls in grades 2-5.
Inside each bag are the supplies needed to celebrate a child’s birthday — a present, cake mix, cupcake wrappers, sprinkles and frosting, said Linda Cooper, Sacred Heart’s faith formation director. The gifts are extra toys left from the parish’s Christmas giving tree, Cooper said, and “our girls have been busy baking treats, holding bake sales and collecting items for the gift bags.”
In late February, the girls delivered more than 30 of the colorful bags to the pregnancy center. “We gave a truck to each boy and a doll to each girl, along with cake frosting and even some blankets,” said 7-year-old Frankie Medici, another Little Flowers member.
“We could tell their hearts really were in the projects that they are doing,” said Janet Swinton, the center’s director. The gift bags will be used in the center’s baby boutique, or as birthday presents for clients, she said.
Swinton gave the girls a tour of the center, where they saw ultrasound photos of babies in the womb and replicas of a fetus at different stages of development.
Little Flowers Girls Club is an organization focused on Catholic virtues, teaching girls about the lives of the saints, outdoor skills, crafts and more, Cooper said. Several other parishes in the archdiocese have Little Flowers clubs and Cooper is hoping to host a camp for the groups at the Lacey parish this summer.