Service Birthday Party for Kids: Operations Secret Smiles

12 and Up, All Ages, Elementary, Middle School, Preschool

Help Hospitals, Help Loved Ones with Chronic Illness, Help the Community, Service Focused Birthday Party and Acts of Kindness, Service Projects for Kids

Elderly, Help Hospitals

By Sheila @ Pennies of Time
November 12, 2012

Calling all Secret “Service” Agents!

A Family Party Benefiting: Residential Nursing Facility

Operation Secret Smiles

On Saturday morning, 14 families gathered at our house to celebrate our boys’ birthdays through a service birthday party. The Secret “Service” Agents were instructed to come in disguise (with a hat or scarf or both). And, boy, did they ever!

Check-In Started at 8:45 in the morning!

The tables where Agents completed their name tags with a finger print and an Agent Name!

Top Secret “Service” Agent who bravely manned the Check-In Station and gave out the mission.

(He grew a mustache just for the party! That is dedication!)

The Hosting Secret “Service” Agent in disguise.

Then, adding the final touches to transform into Secret “Service” Agents!

We loved our mustache wall. Something for every Secret “Service” Agent!

Add a pair of shades (some even had pens in the arms of the glasses), and the transformation to a Secret “Service” Agent is complete!

After our Secret “Service” Agents were in full disguise, they worked on two service projects in the house:

1) Making cards for the residents at Baybrooke Village, and

2) Making “busy books” for patients at the Children’s Medical Center at Legacy.

Families donated the following supplies to help with the projects:

stickers, coloring books, jokes, and crayons.

Card Making Stations

(each table was stocked with cardstock, markers, stickers, glue sticks, printed knock knock jokes, and crayons)

Busy Book Station

Part 1: Bagging the Crayons

(4 crayons per ziplock bag)

Part 2: Stapling the Coloring Pages

(stapling the crayon bags to 4 coloring pages)

After the projects were completed, the Agents had a snack and took a few minutes to play Clean Your Room (my favorite birthday party game).

We had a very brief Secret “Service” Agent training to prepare for going to our service site. Baybrook Village, a long-term and rehabilitation center. (some call it a nursing home)

The group (with cards and flowers in hand) then traveled to the service site and spent over an hour visiting with the residents there. Each family was assigned 2-4 residents. (We coordinated with the director ahead of time and visited the site twice before our service party.) Most of the Agents stayed in disguise.

We ended up visiting more than our assigned residents. One resident parked her wheelchair near the exit so that she could visit with each and every single one of us.

(Many families brought flowers with them to hand out to the residents. The residents LOVED that!)

We were able to make contact with over 50 residents while we were there! The Agents had such a great time that they are asking to go back and visit with their new “friends” again, soon!

In all, we made 260 busy books for the children’s hospital. We will be donating 29 coloring books to Captain Hope’s Kids.

The birthday boys had an incredible time!

(picture of the boys while we were all singing Happy Birthday to them)

I cannot express to you how full my heart was by lunch time on Saturday. And, it still continues to be full of good feelings for our sweet friends who joined us, for family who love us, and for those that we served. Having a service party was more than worth the effort! It has been, by far, the best party that we have ever held in our home.