Homeless children often do not celebrate birthdays. This woman is changing that, one party at a time

[FSogol]

Megs Yunn was helping an 11-year-old named Beverly with her reading homework at an after-school club in Pittsburgh when the girl said something so shocking that it brought tears to Yunn’s eyes.

Yunn, who was director of volunteer programs at a local college at the time, was trying to explain to Beverly the meaning of the word “accustomed.” Yunn used it in a sentence, asking Beverly: “At birthday parties, people are accustomed to eating what?”

The girl, whose family struggled financially, was silent for a moment. “Miss Megs,” she said in a soft voice, “I’ve never had a birthday party or eaten a slice of birthday cake.”

Yunn later told The Washington Post that it had never occurred to her before that some kids do not have birthday parties. “I was stunned — it knocked the wind out of me,” said the 33-year-old mother of four. Yunn sobbed in her car on the drive home thinking about the parties she had thrown for her children and her own birthday parties as a child. Then Yunn decided she needed to do something for Beverly and other children living in poverty or in shelters who have never felt the excitement and joy of a birthday party.

More by the Washington Post's Cathy Free at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2018/10/02/homeless-children-often-do-not-celebrate-birthdays-this-woman-is-changing-that-one-party-time/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.be7f4c04cb29&wpisrc=nl_optimist&wpmm=1

PS: 2.5 million homeless children in the US.

[MaryMagdaline]

1. Hurts

[FSogol]

2. Agreed. n/t

[BeckyDem]

3. The GOP legacy. Destroy unions, destroy all government protections to help those

who end up with no job. Take away welfare, dehumanize people who are poor, sequester them to parts unknown in America. Affordable housing? Republicans idea of that is to give millionaires tax breaks so they can afford more vacation homes.

[FSogol]

4. Years ago I heard some rich Republican woman going on about the evils of big govt. Her example of

the greatest evil? The free lunch program for school age kids.

I knew then and there that i would never vote for a Republican in my life.

[BeckyDem]

5. Exactly! That is a perfect example of their values.

I swear they hate people. They'll disagree to the death, but how else do you evaluate statements like that? I know they love the church charity will fill the void thing but that is pure nonsense. They refuse to see their role in policy that brought about increased poverty in the first place!