by Lisa Reisman The New Haven independent
At Justin’s 5th birthday party, with Alysha, Naomi Rivers, Marcus Harvin, Adam Rawlings, and Yevgeniya Rivers.
Justin turned five last Sunday. His mother Alysha wished him a happy birthday when he got up and gave him a hug. That was that.
Until that evening, when he encountered a group of people in the kitchen of Life Haven, a 40-bed Ferry Street facility which provides temporary shelter to homeless pregnant women and female heads of household with young children. He saw a thickly frosted cake on the table, a wrapped gift, and a card. He looked up at his mother. “It’s for your birthday,” Alysha told him.
“For me?” he asked, his face breaking into a sunny grin.
The occasion was the first installment of the C.A.K.E.S. initiative. Short for Collaborate with Adults and Kids to Ensure Success, it’s the brainchild of Yevgeniya Rivers, a math professor at the University of New Haven and, as it happens, the former teacher of Marcus Harvin, founder and president of Newhallville Fresh Starts.
“I’ve been following the important work he’s doing,” she said, of the nonprofit’s mission to feed anyone in need based on its belief that the first step toward realizing one’s aspirations is nutritional sustenance. “I wanted to be a part of it.” Her daughter Naomi, she said, came up with the idea of surprising kids with freshly baked birthday cakes in the shelters where Fresh Starts does their meal deliveries.
“My birthday is a day I always feel appreciated and loved,” said Naomi, a student at Amity Middle School in Orange. “I want everyone to feel like that.”
Sunday evening marked the pilot run of C.A.K.E.S. There were a few minor glitches. There were candles but no matches. It took a while to find a cake knife.
None of that seemed to matter to Justin. He regarded the cake with awe, then cautiously stuck his finger into the rich frosting with a mischievous smile as the group sang “Happy Birthday.” When Harvin gifted him five $1 bills, he could barely contain his glee.
“This means a lot,” his mother Alysha said. “We don’t really have the money to celebrate his birthday.”
Danielle Gordon, a Life Haven intern who’s pursuing a master’s in social work, watched the proceedings. “Birthdays can be hard times for people who can’t afford to treat their kids with a party and cake and gifts,” she said. “This is a really nice gesture for everyone.”
The plan is for families to register their kids for a birthday cake; on the bulletin board in the front hall is a sign-up sheet and a QR code. Naomi said some of her classmates have expressed interest in pitching in. There was talk of gradually expanding the initiative to other shelters and learning more about each child so they could customize their cakes.
“I see this as a supplemental source of dignity,” said Harvin, as the group neatened up after the party. “It’s another way for us to show people that we see them and we’re looking out for them. This was a good start.”