The initiative bringing birthday boxes to kids in remote communities

One initiative is making sure kids living in remote regions, including those in Manitoba, have the birthday of their dreams.

The Northern Birthday Box Project sends boxes filled with birthday supplies to children living in fly-in communities or communities that are about three hours away from a major centre.

“We’re sending all across the north, into Ontario, into Quebec, and also into northern parts of Manitoba,” said volunteer Koreyan Peterson in an interview on Tuesday.

Peterson explained the organization gets applications from families in northern and remote parts of Canada. The application includes some of the children’s preferences, including theme, cake mix, and icing.

Once the application is processed, it is matched with a sponsor family that puts together the box and sends it to the applicant directly.

Peterson said they give the sponsors some freedom as to what they can include in the box, but they need to send cake mix, icing, candles, balloons, and some decorations.

She noted they want the decoration to be in the child’s preferred theme because, “shopping at most of their local stores, they don’t get the same options as kids who live in the lower half of Canada.”

“A lot of our sponsors actually go above and beyond and make embroidered towels or send up a Happy Birthday banner with the child’s name on it,” she said.

“It’s quite fun to see what people make, as well as what they send that we tell them we have to.”

Peterson said those who want to become a sponsor can contact the charity organization on Facebook. She noted most people spend about $40 to $60 on their boxes, plus the cost of shipping.

- With files from CTV’s Nicole Dube.