Lake Norman nonprofit provides birthday celebrations to kids who never had one
Dave and Dawn Burnworth hope to impart the spirit of giving on their eight grandchildren. They found a way to do it through the Mooresville-based nonprofit Bridge of Hearts.
On Thanksgiving, the family filled 10 large gift bags with candles, frosting and other items for less fortunate families to hold birthdays for their children who never have one. “Celebration kits,” the Burnworths called the gift bags. “Party packs.”
After filling the bags, her grandchildren were so bought in that “they wanted to do more,” Dawn Burnworth said. “’It’s all we got,’” she said she replied.
The family contacted several nonprofits they thought might distribute the bags, but none responded.
On the Mooresville Interstate 77 Exit 31-Exit 36 Facebook page, they asked who might take the gifts, and one agency stood out among people’s replies: Bridge of Hearts.
The couple left a message, and Executive Director Linda Morris soon called back.
She was excited to receive the items for her all-volunteer agency that provides over 1,000 birthday bags a year to children from Huntersville to Harmony.
Bridge of Hearts also sent at least 10,000 hygiene kits and healthy-snack bags to schools since its founding in 2019, helping children from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.
“Hundreds go out every month,” Morris told The Charlotte Observer at the organization’s new location in Talbert Pointe Business Park, off Talbert Road and N.C. 150 east of Interstate 77, exit 36.
And the nonprofit gets care items to pregnant teens, and teens who’ve decided to go out on their own, she said.
Morris spoke to the Observer in early December, the day the Burnworths visited with their 3-year-old grandson, Cade Tatum, and their gift bags.
“It was one of Grammy’s activities for the kids,” Dave Burnworth said, referring to his wife.
“Teaching the kids to give,” Dawn Burnworth said.
“Exactly,” Morris said, standing near the couple she was meeting for the first time. “Because you’re never too young or never too old to care about others.”
‘We wanted all the kids to be celebrated’
Morris spent over 40 years in education, including as principal at Cornelius Elementary School. She retired as a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools assistant superintendent.
She got the idea for Bridge of Hearts from a discussion among members of a book club comprised mainly of retired Cornelius Elementary educators.
“We’d all had careers of anywhere between 25 and 40 years, and we had kept in touch and enjoyed each other,” Morris said.
Member Fran Nichols mentioned how someone brought a birthday cake for a client at the Angels & Sparrows soup kitchen in Huntersville where she volunteers.
“And Fran was telling us how appreciative that lady was of having her birthday celebrated,” Morris said. “And I went, yeah, because that was something we really believed in at Cornelius Elementary School. No matter how big it got, we wanted all the kids to be celebrated on their birthday.”
Parents from wealthy areas of Lake Norman would take huge trays of food to the school for the class to celebrate their child’s birthday, Morris said. For children of parents of lesser means, having such a party “might be a stretch, at home, too,” she said.
“So we said, OK, we’ll do something about that,” Morris said. “We’ve got time now. We’re not working. And then we began to think: We don’t have any money, we don’t have any place to do this. We don’t have any volunteers, and we’re not sure who our kids are, but we’re going to do this.”
Her church, Williamson’s Chapel United Methodist in Mooresville, gave $5,000 to help start the effort. It took off from there.
Broad Street United Methodist in Mooresville “stepped up” and let Bridge of Hearts operate there for four years, said Morris, who works without pay at Bridge of Hearts.
Principals and counselors at every school they contacted agreed to participate, she said.
“We started with the birthday program, because we knew how important it was – no matter what was going on in the family – for the child to have that day of recognition,” Morris said.
“We knew in our wonderful community, our churches and our civic groups were taking care of families at Christmas and Thanksgiving and Easter, but nobody was looking at a child and going, ‘It’s your birthday. That is so exciting.’ ”
Bridge of Hearts relies on 800 volunteers to pack the gifts and drive them to schools and homes across 600 square miles. People donate all the new toys, hygiene and other items.
Volunteers receive a prayer card to take home after they pack a gift bag for a child:
“Dear Lord, May these children feel special on their birthday and at all times. May they know that they are loved by You and by those who made this birthday bag possible. May they recognize You at work in their lives and respond to your wisdom and guidance. Amen.”
Davidson lawyer Bob McIntosh volunteered from the start and owns the building that Bridge of Hearts calls home. Space was reconfigured to include areas to store the new toys and other items and for volunteers to pack the gift boxes.
Another area contains items for families displaced by fires and dealing with other unexpected emergencies.
“Ninety-five percent of the items in the gift room, somebody brings each one of them in,” Morris said. “It’s all just people in the community.”
Bridge of Hearts also conducts gift drives, including one in December that collected hundreds of presents, she said.
“It’s been just a godsend,” Morris said about the larger space. “This is just a perfect, perfect setup for us.”
Branching out to help more families in need
After launching the birthday initiative, Bridge of Hearts decided to “broaden our scope” by delivering hygiene kits to counselors in schools.
That way, children “don’t have to worry about their parent having transportation to get those items, if they can afford them,” Morris said.
“Let us do that, so the teacher is not paying for it, the principal is not paying for it,” Morris said Bridge of Hearts leaders decided. “So we pushed out the Caring for Children program.”
Then they thought about unhoused kids, particularly high schoolers.
Bridge of Hearts began assembling “Go Bags” for such teens, Morris said. Included are “sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, pillow cases, hygiene items, snacks and some kind of little comfort item, and a little encouragement card that says, ‘Hang in there, it’s going to be OK, we care about you,’ ” Morris said. “We have those available for schools to ask for.
“And then we thought about girls who qualify for our programs who got pregnant in middle school or high school, and how expensive it is to get those supplies for their babies,” Morris said. “We put all kinds of items in a bag. It’s about $150 worth of items to have on hand to give that new mother for her baby.’”
Now serving Iredell and Mecklenburg counties, the organization is set to expand to Lincoln and Rowan counties in 2026, Morris said.
“It’s been truly a work – and walk – of faith for us,” Morris said. “We had faith that what we were doing was important, that we were called to do this, even though we were all firmly in the category of ‘senior citizens,’ or, like I call us, ‘seasoned citizens.’ “One of the core reasons we felt celebrating birthdays was important is because a child’s birthday is an important milestone in their journey, and one we wanted to be sure was recognized.
“No child should ever feel that no one cares.”
Supporters are many
The organization has received broad support from people, civic groups, the Mooresville-South Iredell and Lake Norman chambers of commerce and many churches, Morris said.
“We do not take credit for anything,” she said. “You will not see ‘Bridge of Hearts’ on anything that goes out of this building. If the child thinks it’s the school doing it, then that’s great.
Bridge of Hearts, she said, “is the story of how a community has come together to help our youngest, most vulnerable citizens – our children.”
How to donate to Bridge of Hearts
People can donate money, items and their time by contacting Bridge of Hearts online and by calling 704-351-6086.