Event Recap: Birthday Cards for Oasis’ Clients
Since Oasis’ founding in 2017, our volunteers and staff have prioritized sending each of our active clients an annual birthday card. For trans and queer clients, immigrating to a new country to start a new life can be an incredibly isolating experience. Our annual birthday cards started as a small but meaningful gesture to ensure our clients felt seen on their birthdays. When we started, we were sending less than 10 cards a month. Seven years later and with the asylum backlog, we are sending upwards of 90 cards each month. One of our volunteers, Kathy Schwarz, has been keeping the birthday card tradition alive despite the ever increasing volume. As the number of birthday cards needed continues to grow, we hatched an idea to help Kathy with her birthday card workload by collaborating with Oasis’ community of supporters.
To kick off the start of 2024, we invited volunteers to come together at the beautiful 1951 Coffee Company in Berkeley and decorate birthday cards for our clients. We are extremely grateful to those who attended and made the event such a memorable experience. Our team was inspired seeing former interns, clients donors, and new faces who all showed up to uplift and celebrate our client community. We enjoyed seeing everyone’s thoughtful designs, knowing that our clients will be receiving something truly handmade and one of a kind birthday wishes.
We initially saw this as a one time event, but after seeing how special each card turned out and receiving feedback from those who participated, we plan to host these card making activities throughout the year. If you are interested in attending a birthday card decorating event in the future, please make sure you are signed up for our newsletter–where we share all of our events. If you and/or your organization would like to collaborate with Oasis to host a volunteer birthday card activity, please reach out to development@oasislegalservices.org.
A special “thank you” goes out to 1951 Coffee Company for inviting us to use their space and to Almanac Brewing for sponsoring this event!
