Local People

Last Updated on Friday, 01 August 2014 01:20

Two and a half years ago, Megan Yunn was working as the volunteer director of a small area non-profit. She asked an 11-year-old girl what she wanted for her birthday.

Megan Yunn, with her son Wyatt and helper Michelle Messer, stand in front of "Beverly's Birthdays" donations to City Mission's Avis Arbor children.

"She told me she had never had a birthday," Megan recalled. "And I just wanted to do something about that."

The "something" turned into Beverly's Birthdays, a non-profit agency that spans four counties, partners with 27 agencies, and has presented over 670 homeless children with fun, colorful baskets of birthday cheer.

Megan, who has won the KDKA Hometown Hero award, vividly remembers her non-profit's early financial challenges. "The first year, we had $25,000 to spend for homeless children," she said. "The second year, word spread and we got $75,000. We do a lot of grassroots fundraising—personal asks, bake sales and such."

Now she has a dedicated staff of three, and keeps adding needy children to her already-long birthday lists.

Recently, Megan delivered some attractively packaged goodies called "cheer bins" to the homeless children at Avis Arbor, the City Mission's Women and Children's Shelter. Cheer bins contain assorted age-appropriate birthday gifts tailored to each child celebrating a birthday that month. "Birthdays-in-a-Bag" were filled with cake mix, frosting, candles, paper plates, decorations, and all the ingredients for a wonderful child's birthday party.

Avis Arbor feels very fortunate to be on the list of agencies that Beverly's Birthdays freely assists each month, stating, "We look forward to seeing the joy these gifts bring to our youngest residents. Megan, you're the best!"