A gift every child deserves

Seven-year-old Kiara Cuevas, left, makes decorations with help from 10-year-old Kaitlyn Gilman as 4-year-old Naiya Roldan looks on during a birthday party put on by the Gilman family for three other children at the House of Hope shelter in Lowell on Tuesday. SUN / BOB WHITAKER

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LOWELL — A delighted screech emanates from under gobs of blue frosting and chunks of yellow cake.

Clad only in a diaper (and a thick layer of cake), Jaydis Christian is the happiest guy in the room.

It is his first birthday. He may not know how to walk or talk, but the kid knows how to get his party on.

On the other side of the dining room table, Alberto Vargas’ big brown eyes grow wide as he opens the gift bag. A Smurf football. A Spider-Man truck, which the box boasts comes with “a crime fighting battering ram.”

“Mine!” Alberto announces proudly, hugging the football tight as he celebrates his third birthday.

“Who wants cupcakes?” yells Adam Gilman, 13, of Bedford. He gently hands a miniature cupcake to

As his daughter Kaitlyn looks on, Jeff Gilman serves up the cake during a birthday party for 3-year-old Alberto Vargas and 1-year-olds Jaydis Christian and Geomari Pagan at the House of Hope family shelter in Lowell on Tuesday. SUN / BOB WHITAKER

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birthday girl Geomari Pagan, who will be 1-year-old this week.Jaydis, Alberto and Geomari are among more than 17,000 homeless children in Massachusetts. They are staying at the House of Hope, a family shelter on Merrimack Street, with their moms.

“Without us, some of these kids would never have a birthday, and that is not something that a kid should ever go without,” says Adam Gilman. “It is like a right to have a birthday.”

Adam and his sister Kaitlyn, 10, and their parents, Jeff and Alysa, have been coordinating birthday parties for kids living at the shelter since last October. They are volunteering with Birthday Wishes, a nonprofit organization founded in Newton in 2002 by Lisa Vasiloff, Karen Yahara and Carol Zwanger.

“We did some research and discovered that there were no organizations out there providing that kind of a service,” she adds. “The shelters themselves and the parents are often not financially or emotionally able to throw a party and that is where we come in.”

Today, Birthday

Kaitlyn Gilman, 10, and her brother Adam, 13, help as children at the House of Hope shelter play the “Bee Toss.” SUN / BOB WHITAKER

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Wishes throws about 1,500 parties a year, touching the lives of more than 3,000 kids who are either the honorees or who attend the parties in 114 shelters across Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Long Island, N.Y.The organization boasts 400 active volunteers every month.

Before she was married or had children, Alysa Gilman volunteered at the Bread and Roses soup kitchen in Lawrence every Monday night. One night, upon discovering that it was the 65th birthday of one of the guests, she and some of the other volunteers got a cake, put a candle in it and presented it to him.

They sang.

He cried.

It was the first birthday cake he ever had.

That experience stayed with Alysa Gilman. Last fall, when the family was searching for a community-service project for Adam to work on as part of his bar mitzvah, she came across Birthday Wishes. It was a perfect fit.

“They are really going at it — yikes!” exclaims Adam as he is bombarded by a flurry of bean bags being rocketed at his head and torso by a pack of maniacally laughing 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds trying to throw the bags through the holes in the “Bee Toss” cloth held up by Adam and Kaitlyn.

“I have only been here a month, so I wasn’t expecting anything,” says Alberto’s mom, Jessenia. “This is really nice.”

It is a controlled chaos as toddlers chase elusive balloons across the dining room floor. Party hats and glitter cover the tables. Everyone is laughing.

Kaitlyn calls all of the kids to sit at the tables. It is craft time. The room grows quiet as a dozen kids focus intently on gluing mermaids, seashells and dolphins onto cloth bags. It is Kaitlyn’s favorite part of the party.

Jeff carries the ocean-themed cake out into the dining room. It was baked by another Birthday Wishes volunteer. Chocolate goldfish swim through an elaborate underwater world or sparkling blue frosting.

“This has been really great,” says Adam. “It has united us as a family because it is something we can do together.”

“The Gilmans are just fantastic,” says Vasiloff. “They are truly committed and enthusiastic and really spend time deciding what the right gifts are for each child. They put so much thought into each party that they do, and that they are doing this as a family is such a great thing.”

Birthday Wishes recently secured office space in Lowell, in the Eastern Bank building on Central Street. The office is not yet staffed and they are looking for volunteers in this area.

There are two volunteer levels available through Birthday Wishes. Those wishing to contribute to a specific party can do so by checking the organization’s website where needed items are listed: gifts for birthday boys and girls, cakes, goody bags and other party items.

Volunteers can also sign up to conduct toy drives or help out at a party.

The second level of volunteering is to become a party coordinator, which is what the Gilmans do. Party coordinators sign up for a minimum one-year commitment and are assigned top a specific shelter to run the monthly party for all of the kids living there celebrating a birthday within that month.

For more information about Birthday Wishes, visit www.birthdaywishes.org or call 866-388-9474.