Kentucky girl makes ‘birthday boxes’ for impoverished classmates

A Kentucky third grader has started a project to ensure children have birthday parties when their families can’t afford it.

Nine-year-old Bella Smith, of Laurel County, collects donations of cake mixes, icing and party supplies, which she packs into boxes. She then delivers the boxes to the family resource center at her school in London, Ky., according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Bella started the project after a classmate told her he didn’t have a birthday party because his family couldn’t afford it.

“She wanted me to buy him a cake originally,” Bella’s mother, Marlana Evans, said.

The Herald-Leader reported that 80% of students at Bella’s school are poor, so buying a cake for each child isn’t feasible. That’s when the pair decided to create birthday boxes.

For the last two years on her own birthday, Bella has asked for donations for the birthday boxes, Evans told the newspaper. She said the family sometimes use their own money to complete the boxes, of which Bella has made 80 this school year.