Ramos and about 20 other children celebrated their birthdays with 16 Brown students. The party, the second one of its kind this year, was thrown by Operation Happy Birthday, an organization dedicated to tutoring and mentoring underprivileged children and adolescents and throwing birthday parties for those who would not otherwise have them.
The party was organized by Wilfredo Peréz Jr. '08, founder of Operation Happy Birthday, and was held in McAuley Village, a transitional apartment facility in Providence that helps single mothers and their children through phases of homelessness, unemployment and domestic violence, among other things.
Beginning with a song by the Ursa Minors and ending with the children slaughtering balloons en masse, the party was "very, very special" for the residents, said Sister Holly Cloutier, resident services coordinator of McAuley Village.
"Just look at (the children's) faces," Cloutier said. "They're delighted. Everyone is delighted with the gifts they got."
The children were each treated to gifts based on wish lists made in advance. They also received balloons, games, party hats and noisemakers. Purchase of the gifts was covered by Johnson and Wales as well as private donors.
Peréz, who has become a minor celebrity by giving speeches across the country as a part of the Boldly Brown campaign, said though he has gotten private donations from people across the country, the party left Operation Happy Birthday "nearly broke." He is currently in the process of applying for $50,000 in funding to become a nonprofit organization. The Undergraduate Finance Board does not provide funding to Operation Happy Birthday because it is not a campus-based student organization, he said.
Peréz's path to Brown was tumultuous. He spent much of his childhood homeless and now, though only a sophomore, has had three offers for medical residencies at Stanford University. His personal story is so compelling, in fact, that it often overshadows the work he does with Operation Happy Birthday, a three-year-old program that has already shown the potential to develop into a national organization.
"When I gave a speech for Boldly Brown in San Francisco last year, (Mayor Gavin Newsom) fell in love with Operation Happy Birthday," Peréz said. Newsom's efforts in support of the program mean that the San Francisco branch of Operation Happy Birthday "is going to become a government program starting next fiscal year," Peréz said.
Peréz said he hopes to make the program as well known as organizations like the United Nations Children's Fund because "it's just as important." For now, however, he is focused on gathering more volunteers, acquiring more funding and getting people interested in the project.
Peréz said he got the idea for Operation Happy Birthday several years ago from the Notorious B.I.G. song titled "Juicy." In the song, the rapper "talked about how bad life was, how Christmas missed us, how birthdays miss us. ... So I was like, let's fix that," Peréz said.
While many homeless shelters are flooded with gifts at Thanksgiving and Christmas, Peréz said donors often overlook birthdays and children over the age of 13, so Operation Birthday focuses on a day "just to celebrate each child," he said, complete with custom gifts that cater to the children's interests.
"These kids don't have the opportunities other kids have," he said. "This is a chance for each kid to just celebrate themselves."
The children were not the only ones who enjoyed the birthday party, however.
Jay McCarthy GS said he had a lot of fun, adding that it was rewarding to "see the kids' faces light up." Watching them "run towards the candles makes you remember when you were eight or nine, because you don't really get to do that anymore," McCarthy said.
