1st of September 2021

Birthdays are a time to celebrate and make a child feel special and loved. However, children foster care are often robbed of this experience due to a variety of reasons. To ensure that all our foster youth receive the celebration they deserve, we’ve partnered with Children’s Foundation of America (CFA).

Thanks to CFA and their Birthday-in-a-Bag campaign, our foster youth get to experience a joyful birthday. The organization reaches out to us monthly for a list of children’s birthdays and their wishes. The youth in our care are always so happy and appreciative to receive their birthday gifts.

“I love my gift, I’m so happy,” said one youth after opening his birthday gift. “It felt so good to be remembered,” replied another youth when asked how they felt receiving a birthday gift from CFA.

“There are youth that consider their birthday just another day. I will say the gifts put smiles on their faces and the youth have expressed gratitude for acknowledging them. I also have the kitchen make a birthday cake for the youth. Sometimes the dorm will sing but if the youth prefer to just eat his cake without singing, we honor that,” said Cathleen Duran, El Monte Recreational Coordinator.  

Thank you to CFA for supporting our children and helping us celebrate their precious lives. If you are interest in partnering with us to support our children contact Isabel Millward-Pena at imillwardpena@trinityys.org or at 909.426.0773 ext. 234. 

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Isabel Millward-Pena, Communications Specialist
Isabel contributes content for our social media, blog, newsletters and promotional materials. She recently earned a bachelor’s degree in English from California State University San Bernardino and is currently working on her master’s degree. Isabel began working at Trinity as an intern, was hired as clerical, and was then promoted to communications in our development department. Prior to her work at Trinity, she was a substitute instructional aid and a supervisor at Starbucks. She has also volunteered as an aid at local elementary schools and notably achieved “Partner of the Quarter” at Starbucks in 2017. Isabel is an active member of Trinity’s Diversity, Inclusion, Value and Equity (DIVE) team and volunteers her time at the Children’s Foundation of America.