On Saturday, Oct. 24, at the South Orange Public Library, Girl Scout Troop 816 made birthday bags, which were donated to the Our Lady of Sorrows food pantry.

My troop and I collected party supplies such as paper plates, cake mix, icing and goody bags. We decorated bags given to us by Ben Salmon, the owner of Kitchen a la Mode and a frequent Patch contributor. Then we filled them with the party supplies and labeled the bags as to whether they were for a younger or older boy or girl.

We delivered 15 bags and some extra cake mixes to the food pantry. We learned that when families need food, birthday party supplies are not a high priority. Since we are kids ourselves, we wanted to make sure that other children are able to have a birthday celebration. In fact, some of the supplies we had were left over from our own birthday parties, and it was fun to look back at our Barbie stickers and cowboy napkins.

In January on Girl Scout Day, my troop is going to see "Wicked," and we'll have a singing and dancing workshop beforehand with several other Girl Scout troops. The show's producers have organized a "For Good" contest, where troops do a community service project and then write a brief summary of their good deed to send to the producers. The winning troops present their projects onstage. My troop is sending in an account of our birthday bag project.

I really enjoyed making birthday bags, and whether we win or not, I am happy to know that some children will still be able to have a birthday party without having to spend money on the supplies.