138 glamour.comCHENAULT: THISBE GRACEWhat I’ve learned: When I face my fears, it turns out they’re not
those big giants I thought they were. You just need to take one step!
My best advice: Share your dreams with the people you
love, and keep those people close. Having a safe place to bare my
vulnerability has given me a support system along my journey.i
’ve always loved a celebration. After my husband, Colin, and
I threw an awesome wedding on a small budget in 2005, my
boss asked if I’d help a neighbor whose daughter was getting
married. I agreed and started getting so many requests to plan
other parties that I quit my job to start my own events company.
Fast-forward to 2008: I had $4 million in business and was
pregnant with my daughter, Lizzie. Taking a rare day off, I was
on a plane to visit a friend, reading an article about birthday par-
ties, and I got excited imagining the Pinterest-worthy bashes I’d
throw my child. Then I turned to another magazine. Staring back
at me like a smack in the face was an image of a little boy with no
shoes on. He was in Haiti, and chaos was everywhere around him.
It w a s l i k e h e w a s s t a r i ng s t r a ig ht a t m e —big , w id e e y e s f i l l e d w i t h
despair. It was a punch in the gut: What about him? I thought.
Who is going to celebrate him the way that I’ll celebrate Lizzie?
When I got home, I immediately told my husband I wanted
t o do some t h i ng. He w a s suppor t ive but a l so rem i nde d me: “ You
have 32 events on the books—and by the way, you’re having a
baby!” So I tabled the idea. But in my mind I kept seeing that boy.
Then, at Lizzie’s third-birthday party in July of 2011, as I
watched the room fill with people who loved her, I thought: Three
miles down the road, there are children who will never feel this
way. I knew it was time. The next day I got the smartest people I
knew in a room to brainstorm, and six months later my husband
and I officially launched our nonprofit, The Birthday Party Project.
Our first party took place at Family Gateway, an agency that
s e r v e s h o m e l e s s f a m i l i e s i n D a l l a s. We l e t t h e m o m s k n o w w e w e r eLessons From My 180
coming, and set up tattoo, bracelet-making, and coloring stations.
Each of the children who was having a birthday—there were eight
that month—got an individual cake with his or her name on it.
I will never forget the moment they came in with a look in their
eyes that said, “Wait—you’re here for me?” At first I worried that
the oldest, Micah, who was turning 11, would think the party was
lame. But midway through he started break-dancing!
Over the next two years, we kept expanding, and I closed my
events business. Now we have more than 9,000 volunteers and
have celebrat ed more t ha n 3,000 bir t hday s a cross t he countr y—
our parties are rocking, with petting zoos, magicians, and
superhero outfits. We get the moms and dads involved too, even
supplying gifts they can give to their kids. I bring Lizzie when I can,
and I love that she gets this lens on life. I’ve also kept up with Micah
on Facebook—he’s 15 now! I’ll never forget the day I met him: “Ms.
Paige,” he told me after the party, “this is the first birthday cake I
ever had. Thank you.” Once in a while I miss the luxury of traveling
to mountainsides to plan clients’ weddings, but that memory more
than makes up for it. —as told to Concepción de LeónChenault
at a Candy
Land–
themed
partyLife / The One-eighty
Look for more stories of women who changed their
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brought to you by the all-new 2017 Chevrolet Malibu.How I
Found My
Purpose
For most people, starting a
multimillion-dollar events business
would be #lifegoals enough.
But Paige Chenault, 34, had
an even better idea....