What do you want for your birthday?

Our “Response of the Heart” team was launched by two lifelong best friends, “The Great Kozovaya” and Lydia Danielevna.

We lost Kozovaya to Covid, but Lydia Danielevna has continued serving, faithfully and well.

This month she’ll turn 85.

I asked her how she’d like to celebrate....

Her birthday wish is to give a huge gift to the families of children with disabilities, in Dzerzhinsk:

Summer camp, a bus trip to the big city (Minsk) — maybe even a visit to the circus — with a fun event in a rented facility...

And perhaps the greatest prize of all: pizza!

When we began helping the Dzerzhinsk family association years ago, it was new and small.

Children with disabilities were largely invisible, shunned by society.

But this group banded together and determined to come out of the shadows, to let their children be children.

We’ve had the joy of providing much-needed aid and supporting events spotlighting the children’s talents.

Now, to honor Lydia Danielevna’s 85th birthday and her decades of service to children in need all over Belarus...

We can make her wish come true, and make some Dzerzhinsk families very, very happy.

The entire project will cost an average of about 327 Belarusian rubles for each child and their parent together.

That’s roughly $100 — to cover food, entertainment, facility rentals, transportation, everything. Not a bad deal.

There are 35 children in the group.

I’m hoping Lydia Danielevna will be able to invite all of them to a great summertime experience.

If you’d like to help make it happen, and say “С восемьдесят пятым днем ​​рождения!” (Happy 85th birthday!) to Lydia Danielevna, I’ll be grateful.

And I know she’ll be delighted.

You can make an online donation here, or mail a check to New Thing.

But Lydia Danielevna’s birthday is May 20th, so please let me hear from you as soon as possible.

Thanks for journeying with New Thing!

Much love,

Doug Brendel

(Photos by Oleg Yarovenko)