Dreams Delivered Daily celebrates 500th foster care birthday
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WNKY) — Dreams Delivered Daily, a Kentucky nonprofit that provides personalized birthday celebrations for youth in foster care, recently reached its 500th celebration.
Founder Cameron Faris started the organization in January 2025 with a goal of celebrating one child each week. Instead, Dreams Delivered Daily celebrated 243 youth during its first year.
Making birthdays personal
Each celebration is personalized to the child.
Youth can choose details such as the flavor and theme of their cake, along with gifts from a wish list. Volunteers and bakers across Kentucky then help bring those requests together.
Faris said that personal touch matters because many youth in foster care are often given necessities such as clothing, shoes and school supplies.
“We don’t necessarily hit what they need, but what they want,” Faris said. “You make them feel like a child because a lot of them have to grow up a little too quick. And giving them a toy might give them that day, you know.”
Dreams Delivered Daily serves children and young adults who have an active case with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. The organization serves youth from their first birthday through age 21, including young adults who remain in the state’s independent living program.
The stories behind 500
For Faris, the milestone is less about the number than the stories behind it.
She recalled one 17-year-old who had been in care since age 5 and had never celebrated his birthday.
“Obviously 500 was huge, but it’s those little stories of those 500,” Faris said. “And so giving him that moment and him looking me in the face, saying I’d never seen my name on a cake before, those are the moments for me.”
Faris also delivered the organization’s 500th celebration in Somerset. The young woman, a Western Kentucky University student, received an e-bike through another foundation, along with a Keurig and coffee pods from Dreams Delivered Daily.
Faris said moments like that help carry her through the more difficult days of nonprofit work.
How to help
Dreams Delivered Daily now has more than 50 volunteers across Kentucky.
Volunteers can choose which counties they are willing to serve and are contacted when a birthday comes up in their area. The organization also works with home bakers and brick-and-mortar bakeries.
Faris said $100 covers one birthday from start to finish, including the cake, gifts and, when needed, a new volunteer’s background check.
The nonprofit also accepts donations and items through an Amazon wish list. More information is available through the Dreams Delivered Daily website.
