Wildside’s Birthday Bash Kicks Off the Party Season!

Imagine one giant party to celebrate everyone’s birthday. Sounds kinda wild, doesn’t it? Well Wildside Youth Ministries likes to do things a little different so they kicked off their school year party season with a huge birthday party celebration!

All the kids who attended the Birthday Bash on September 25th were able to celebrate their birthday. Each month was given a celebration and no one was left out of the fun! 52 kids ages 5-12 attended the first Wildside party of the season where they played birthday themed carnival games, painted faces, made crafts and enjoyed some great food.

But the most important part of the evening was learning about having the most important birthday: a spiritual birthday. The kids in attendance learned all about the importance of being born again and following Jesus.

Wildside is the youth ministry at The Hope Center. In addition to monthly large event parties during the school year, Wildside hosts Sunday Night Wild on select Sunday evenings during the school year as well as The Crew which is the student leadership development program for older kids in the program. And each summer Wildside hosts Camp Wild, a free day camp for kids in July & August. All Wildside activities are free for kids ages 5-12. Learn more about Wildside and upcoming events by visiting http://www.wildsideyouth.com.

Your financial donations to The Hope Center help fund these important activities for kids in Hagerstown. We are able to keep Wildside and our other programs and services for free for our guests because of generous and faithful supporters in our community. Thank you for your support of The Hope Center as we continue to reach everyone in our community – even kids – for Christ!

Want to learn more about donating or volunteering at The Hope Center? Go to http://www.hagerstownhopecenter.com to get all the info you need on how to become a partner with us.

Happy Birthday, Jeremy!

The first Friday of each month is our birthday celebration with our residents. Any resident in our Foundations program who has a birthday each month is celebrated with cake and more.

This month we only have one resident who is celebrating a birthday. So join us in wishing Jeremy a very happy birthday!

A fun fact about this birthday celebration is that it actually fell on Jeremy’s actual birthday!

While all of our birthday guys genuinely appreciate their birthday celebrations, Jeremy seemed very touched to be honored on his birthday. He remarked that he hasn’t had a birthday cake or anything else on his birthday in the past 5 years. So we are very happy to help celebrate with Jeremy this year!

Jeremy is a resident in Foundations and has been here since December 5, 2011.  He currently works in the sorting department and if you’ve dropped items off at our sorting lately there is a good chance that you’ve come in contact with Jeremy.

Thank you to Stormy for baking the birthday cake again for our residents!

And we want to thank you, our friends & supporters, for helping to make this birthday special for Jeremy and helping us to bring hope back to so many people in Hagerstown! A birthday celebration may not mean much to many people but it has been another step towards restoration in Jeremy’s life.

God has used you to help change a life and restore hope! Thank you for caring for men like Jeremy. Please continue to pray for Jeremy and our other residents as they fight the hard fight to change their lives.

Happy Birthday!

We want to wish some of our residents a very happy birthday!

Staff members Rick & Brad (far left & far right) pose with two of the birthday guys, Charles and William.

Three of the guys in the Foundations program are celebrating their birthdays this month. James, Charles & William were treated to a birthday celebration on Friday.

Join us in wishing these three guys a happy birthday and continue to pray for these men and all the other guys in our program as they continue to make the changes needed in their lives to help them be the man God wants them to be.

Thanks again to Stormy for baking our residents another delicious birthday cake!

Happy Birthday Anthony!

Last Friday we had our monthly birthday celebration. We have only one resident birthday in January so join us in wishing Anthony a very happy birthday!!

If you’ve stopped by our property anytime over the past few months then you’ve probably seen Anthony helping out in our Thrift Store or the Sorting Room. Anthony is usually always wearing a smile and loves posing for the camera!

Thanks again to our good friend, Stormy, for baking another delicious birthday cake!

Happy Birthday, Anthony!