EAST ST. LOUIS (KMOX) -- "It's Your Birthday" is something most of us love to hear, but is also something a lot of local kids don't get to hear.
That's at least until Rolanda Finch and her crew of volunteers show up. She started It's Your Birthday, an organization which throws parties for kids in shelters.
"We typically have about four to five parties a month. We also do a birthday in a box, which is where we give the Mom from the shelter everything they need to have the party. Or we have a birthday in a class, where we drop off cupcakes and say it's from the Mom," she explains.
It's fun for the kids, but emotional for the adults.
"I've been doing this for five years, and probably the first two and a half I came home crying all the time. I was just so emotional, and I would have the Moms pull me aside and say thank you. They would cry, I would cry," she said.
Finch says she calls more than a dozen shelters to ask who their birthday kids are that month.
Then, businesses from Nothing Bundt Cakes to Build-A-Bear step up, giving her volunteers donated goods to throw a party the kids won't soon forget.
If you'd like more information or to get involved: itsyourbirthdayinc.org.