In lieu of gifts .... Children are turning birthday parties into charitable occasions.(News)

Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL), July, 2007

Byline: Rupa Shenoy rshenoy@@dailyherald.com The invitation to Kevin Kluge's 9th birthday party came with an American Cancer Society can. In lieu of gifts, children arrived at the June party with their tins full of coin donations to put toward Kevin's Naperville Relay for Life team. Together they raised $373.

"It's good to raise money and give it to the cancer researchers," said Kevin, an Aurora resident. "And they go to get more medicine, and then they give it to all the people who have cancer." Like a growing number of children, Kevin knows what cancer is; his cousin had it, and his family talked frankly about the illness. That exposure is being cited as one cause of a trend that many area non-profits say they see often: children asking guests...