In an effort to teach children to help those who are less fortunate at an early age, a local preschool has chosen to partner with the Happy Birthday Baby program, which benefits needy families, single mothers, and underage mothers in the MetroWest area who are expecting to add a new bundle of joy to their households. This program, which stemmed from the Welcome Baby program that benefits Boston-area families, is headed by the First Baptist Church in Framingham. What the Happy Birthday Baby program does is make up baskets filled with items for newborns and gifts them to local families who cannot afford to purchase things many take for granted, like bibs, diaper rash cream, and other basic infant items. To date, this wonderful program has gifted over 180 baskets to MetroWest families from Natick to Sudbury to Worcester and many towns in between.
Local retailers who have contributed to the Happy Birthday Baby program are TJX Companies (the parent company of TJMaxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods) and The Christmas Tree Shoppes. Our local preschool has made it their goal to put together five complete baskets to help with this worthy cause, asking families of the students to contribute one or two items if they can to just one of the baskets. Since I feel very strongly that children should have books available to them from the very beginning and that books are a luxury many families cannot afford, I reached out to Candlewick Press for a small donation of board books for one or more of the gift baskets. When the box of books arrived to my home, I was surprised to find that Candlewick Press had generously provided two board books for each of the five baskets. This was far more than I could afford to contribute on my own, so I must thank Candlewick Press again on behalf of myself and the director of the preschool.
These are the two board books each baby will be receiving . . .
Bears on Chairs by Shirley Parenteau is available in a hardcover or a board book format. This rhyming children's book would be fun for even the youngest child to listen to. The soft-colored illustrations by David Walker are extremely charming and would be at-home in any nursery.
Flip, Flap, Fly!: A Book For Babies Everywhere by Phyllis Root is a cheerful rhyming board book. Also illustrated by David Walker, this book is sweet and full of baby animals that will charm young readers. This book is also available in hardcover.
Thank you to Candlewick Press for donating books to this worthy cause. No compensation was received for sharing this information with my readers.
