By Gabriella Payne
When Officer local Emma Ramsey posted a question in a Facebook community group earlier this month, asking total strangers if they would mind sending her daughter Kellia a few birthday cards to brighten up her 14th birthday, she never expected the amount of love they would receive.
In a short space of time, more than 200 people throughout the Pakenham area had reacted and replied to Ms Ramsey’s query, saying they would be more than happy to oblige – and in doing so, the community made it a day that both Kellia and Emma will never forget.
“I appreciate so much what these people have done to make her birthday the best day she’s ever had,” Ms Ramsey said.
“It’s the first proper party she’s ever had and it was just so amazing.”
14-year-old Kellia, who has autism and loves birthday cards, was over the moon to receive more than 65 birthday cards in the post – and was particularly in love with a musical card featuring singing kittens inside.
“I was excited, and I even got to open some of them before my birthday!” she said.
Emma Ramsey said that her daughter had not only received cards in the post, but generous strangers had gifted her some presents too, including flowers, balloons, a teddy bear – and some even hand delivered cupcakes to their door.
“I wanted to say thank you to everyone who reached out and sent her all the cards, all the gifts, all the cakes – everything, someone even gave her $10!” Ms Ramsey said.
“I’m so grateful for everything people did, she loved it and she’s had a very big weekend!”
On top of that, some kind ladies in the community decided to go above and beyond to make Kellia’s birthday on Saturday 22 May even more special, by offering their help with a girls’ pamper party, doing Kellia and a few of her friends’ hair and makeup, and treating them with facemasks and footbaths too.
“It was just amazing,” Ms Ramsey said.
Having three children all with autism, Ms Ramsey said it was nice to make Kellia feel extra special for a day – something she truly deserved after a difficult year.
“She’s been a bit down lately,” Ms Ramsey explained.
“We’ve had a really rough 18 months with domestic violence and things like that, but things have settled now and a lot of stuff has been turned around and changed.
We’ve had to move house, and we were motel hopping for a while, so it’s been a hell of a 12-18 months but the kids are finally settled,” she said.
“We’ve been through so much, so I decided, it’s her birthday, she missed out on her 13th birthday because we didn’t know anyone and Covid was going on and we were stuck in motels, so I wanted to make her birthday as special as possible, and so I just reached out and people were just really nice and happy to send her cards.”
Ms Ramsey wanted to say a special thank you to Kellia’s support worker Kellie, who had helped her and her family through this tough time in their lives.
“Kellie helped organise Kellia’s party and she’s a huge support to us,” Mr Ramsey said.
“I’m just so appreciative of everything that people did to make Kellia’s day special.”
