On the day he turned 47, Kurt Powell felt lucky when a friend invited him to his home for the day, a welcome respite from living on the street.
"I slept. I love sleep," said Powell of Santa Rosa. "I just wanted to kick back."
A birthday can easily go by without celebration or even recognition for people when they are homeless or transient.
"I didn't do anything, no money, it was kind of a bummer," said Angel Moore, 39, of her birthday last August.
Foot massages, hair cuts, burgers and music drew hundreds of homeless adults and families Thursday to Santa Rosa's Juilliard Park for the fourth annual Homeless Birthday Party.
Redwood Gospel Mission began holding birthday parties for homeless clients in a back yard many years ago, executive director Jeff Gilman said. Four years ago, it took the event to the Santa Rosa Avenue park to welcome more people.
"We want to say, &‘We're glad you were born,'" Gilman said.
Mission volunteers flipped hamburgers and served slices of cake heaped with frosting during the two-hour event.
They passed out about 350 gift boxes filled with soaps, socks, brushes and other toiletries, as well as toys for children, Gilman said. They also gave away five backpacks donated by outdoor outfitter Marmot to raffle winners.
Hunter Dean, age 5, did not hesitate to run up to grab a microphone from musicians playing Christian songs and woo the crowd, singing "Twinkle twinkle little star."
He brought his mother, Sabrina Dean of Petaluma, to tears.
Dean has little time for celebration between caring for her four young children and working at Kmart, all while living in a shelter and trying to find permanent housing. But events like Thursday's party "just makes it easier, giving them a piece of happy," said Dean, 30. "A time for them to just be kids."
Homelessness is new for Dale Smevold, a 25-year-old house painter, who in January was kicked out of his apartment. He is now couch surfing at friends' homes until he can save up enough for a security deposit.
"A lot of people look at homeless people like they're bad," Smevold said. "I have been doing this only a few months, and it sucks, it really does."
He put his aching feet into a foot bath. Nurse practitioner Scott Campbell, volunteering on his lunch break from the Veterans Affairs clinic, told him to keep a callous sanded down.
"Do your feet hurt?" Campbell said.
"No, not too bad, but I am on my feet all the time," said Smevold.
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