DeBartolo Family Foundation Grants Celebrate Birthdays The Spirit of Humanity Award
The DeBartolo Family Foundation is proud to present Celebrate Birthdays with a $25,000 Spirit of Humanity Award. The award honors local nonprofit organizations that impact the Tampa Bay community in a meaningful way.
Founded in 2019 by friends Belinda Leto and Celina Saunders, Celebrate Birthdays helps foster children and children in need in the Tampa Bay community celebrate their special day regardless of their family’s personal or financial situation.
“When you’re a kid, nothing is more exciting than your birthday, and we are so thrilled that Belinda and Celina recognized that not all families have the means to celebrate their child’s special day and created Celebrate Birthdays,” said Lisa DeBartolo, Chief Executive
Officer of the DeBartolo Family Foundation. “We are proud to honor Celebrate Birthdays with our Spirit of Humanity Award and help bring Birthday joy to children in our community.”
Celebrate Birthdays hosts monthly birthday parties for foster homes and low-income housing communities, provides Birthday Bins to select Title 1 elementary and primary schools and donates Birthday Boxes filled with everything needed to make a fun birthday. The organization, which has surprised 6,000 children so far, is planning to create a “Birthday Boutique”, a mobile bus that will visit children and let them hop on board to select their Birthday outfit in addition to pajamas, accessories, undergarments and socks.
“We are beyond grateful for all that you do in our community and it is an extreme honor to have been selected for the Spirit of Humanity Award,” said Belinda Leto, Executive Director of Celebrate Birthdays. “The impact this Spirit of Humanity Award will have on our charity is so significant and meaningful. It will allow Celebrate Birthdays to serve more children in need, both with our Birthday Party Program, which will allow us to expand and serve additional locations monthly and to also serve 300 more children with our Birthday in a Box Program.”
Recipients of the Spirit of Humanity award create unity, demonstrate hard work, and extend their outreach by helping people in need to overcome obstacles that are beyond their control. Since 2002, 59 recipients have been recognized with the $25,000 Spirit of Humanity Award, awarded three times annually.
Learn more about Celebrate Birthdays.
