TCU’s Good Neighbor initiative committee is partnering with a local non-profit that helps homeless children celebrate their birthdays. 

The Dallas-based Birthday Party Project was on campus from 7:30-9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6 to stuff goodie bags for at need children in the community

The Birthday Party Project (TBPP) is a non-profit that helps bring the celebration of birthday parties to kids who are growing up homeless in their communities. The non-profit is active in 19 states across the country, with partners across multiple cities. The state of Texas has community partners in four major cities, with there being 23 partners in Dallas and five in Fort Worth.  

TBPP creator Paige Chenault said the statement every child deserves a birthday is what resonated with her when she created and continued the non-profit that was started in Dallas.

At the 10th Annual Women in the World conference, Chenault spoke about how the project began from an idea that was sparked in her mind while going through a magazine in search of birthday party themes for her daughter.

During the interview, Chenault says she was “smacked by the image of a starved little boy in Haiti.”  

This image is what helped initiate the first party thrown by the nonprofit in 2012. Since then, TBPP has thrown a total of 2,600 birthday parties for an estimate of 24,000 kids and a total of 65,000 kids accounted for in total party attendance.  

In the DFW area, there have been 4,550 children celebrated through the non-profit, the highest amongst active communities in the country.  

TBPP partnered with TCU’s Good Neighbor Initiative committee, which serves under TCU’s Housing and Residence Life.

The initiative serves to allow students to stay engaged within the community on campus by volunteering for community service projects in the area as well as hosting different social events, allowing members to stay engaged with each other outside of community service events.