June 23, 2026 • 19 mins
David Spickler & Kelly McGregor, Birthday Beacon.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to Dakota Mornings. I'm your host, Michael Bell
kf y R five fifty AM nine to nine points
seven FM. We're an iHeartMedia production and we are joined
again in studio this morning by David Spickler Kelly McGregor.
Birthday Beacon and I read an article you know, a
little bit ago, a couple of weeks ago or so,
(00:20):
and I said to Magic Sam, I was like, we
have got to get these people in. This is an
incredible organization. I love everything you do, So why don't
you give us a background on Birthday Beacon.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, sure we'll do, and thank you for the chance
to come here and visit. We're so excited to be
my pleasure and so Birthday Beacon essentially we were found
at a little less than two years ago just on
five words. Every child deserves a party. We provide fun,
destination birthday parties for kids that may not otherwise get
to experience one kids for whatever search situation in that
(00:54):
family or that life that they may not be able
to get to have that incredible birthday or that incredible party.
What Birthday Beacon and does is is finds those kids
and throws them a party.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
And I love it the destination aspect of it. Can
you just give us a you know, sky Zone, I
know is one location that you utilize and but there
are a number of.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Others, so that scalo you. You've been instable gold and
setting up all Why don't you rattle off all the
incredible places a kid can have a party at.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Tilt Studios, Midway Lanes, Jump Works formerly Skyzone, Jumped Up Bs,
the Aquatic Center BFW, you can do hockey and skating
four seasons, batting cages, the Larks, Dakota Zoo, Bismarck Gymnastics Academy,
and Hillside Pool.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
This is an incredible opportunity to a population which ordinarily
would go somewhat overlooked. And I appreciate that. So you
are you're just right now in the in the Bismarck
Mandan area, although you have some some other in like Carrington,
for example, you've done some events there. How much fun
(02:06):
is it to do this? How much fun was it
to stand up this organization.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So it's really rewarding for us. It's been a unique
thing to just it was part of why we did this.
This was kind of borne out of the company that
Kelly and I worked for, and we had spent years
just in corporate life with how just every day coming
into work and how we did this. And about a
year and a half ago we were to corporate retreat
and just said, we need to focus on why a
little bit more. Why are we coming in every day
(02:32):
and going to work, Why are we solving all these problems?
What is this leading towards? And this is what we
landed on. Part of our just experience here, just our
lived experience is going to be that we're going to
help find kids and this community and throwing birthday parties
and it's been incredibly rewarding. It's also been rewarding to
just solve the challenge of how do you deliver this
(02:54):
many parties on a given month.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
We're throwing twenty every single day.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Just about every day somebody, on average, somebody is receiving
a Birthday Beacon party, and just just the mechanics of
all that. It's been kind of a fun, fun business
challenge to solve and it really helps those of us
that are involved in Birthday Beacon. It's really neat to
have this thing that we just gravitate to. And just
like your response, Michael, it seems like almost every day
(03:19):
we meet someone that just says, this is awesome, just
immediately connects with a mission of why it's so important
for those young you know, for a young child to
get to experience a great day when they may not
otherwise have a bunch of great days, a bunch of
great memories and whatnot. So it's been really fun for
us just to get surrounded by people that think and
feel the way we do and see the impact that
(03:40):
this mission has had and just some of the feedback
we get and the experiences with it.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, your appearance on here is deeply appreciated. Your appearance
on Decode of Mornings is I can't thank you enough
for coming in. You're about to get real road busy.
How do you somebody, because there's a nomination process where
you nominate a child for this for this part, how
does someone go about doing that?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Well, that's a good We put a lot of thought
into this because you want to thread the needle between
you want to find deserving children that deserve a partner.
You want to avoid maybe just just an overwhelming just
people motivated by less than deserving reasons and whatnot. And Kelly,
I think you can describe. We came up with a
pretty incredible way for how we go about doing that.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Well, we reached out to Bismarck Public Schools first, and
the school counselors and the social workers there and Mandan
Public Schools. Also, Morton County Social Services, Burley County Social Services,
Better Together and Dakota Children's Advocacy Center are our main
nominators we have.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
We've had somebody from just about every organization you listed
here on d Code of Mornings. So continued, Please.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
We have a.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Electronic form that is just sent out just to selected
nominated partners, and they select the families and fill out
that form, select the party, and we get everything back
to the nominator to get to the family.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Okay, And how does somebody access.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
That they would need to contact the schools or a
social worker at Berley County or Martin County Social Services.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Okay. So, and one of the things that well, we
will endeavor to do here is to try to link
up I'm sure you guys are going to use this
podcast and when it's reduced to a podcast, you're going
to use this as some marketing for those various entities.
We appreciate that, but most importantly, who doesn't love cake?
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Right?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Absolutely, I have a lot of great memories that are
cake adjacent at least. And and and I think that's
a unique And you have a wonderful baker here in
town that provides cupcakes for every one of these parties,
and just that that whole experience has just been an
incredible It's it's something that that just every time we
(05:57):
get feedback off of one of these parties, it's great.
And I be you've you've dished out almost three thousand
cupcakes I think out of all the parties we've thrown
so far.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
So that's great. So, speaking of which, let's talk about
some of your sponsors, some of your you know, foundational sponsors.
Let's highlight them.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So, yeah, so we've we've been fortunate to have a
lot of individual donors come alongside us and support financially
in any any way we can. And actually we've had
a handful of of of major just corporate sponsors that
have really affected the trajectory of this business. The company
that we work for, Lightolse Commodities, has been a major sponsor,
(06:36):
A Cornerstone bank here in town and throughout North Dakota
has been a major sponsor. Uh it used to be
Red Trail Energy now Jievo and that Nero, they've been
a huge sponsor.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
They're doing great things out there in the month.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah region, Yeah, transformative and they got big plans for
what's next and yeah, big big plans. And just there
you see some of that alignment to where these these
businesses that are so innovative and so client focused and
so how do we bring technology to make our business better?
Are also the ones that have come alongside us and
(07:10):
said we gravitate to this mission. We just want to
help people, period and whatnot. So they've been and then
the parties were throwing in Carrington, New Rockford, Minewaukan. That
sendaut Cooperative has been a major financial spots or two.
So we've been really fortunate to have some businesses say
we want this to be part of our why. Also
we want part of our why as a company to
be that we help throw parties for kids that may
(07:31):
not get to We've been very fortunate right out of
the gate to have some excellent support.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Well, and you guys, you too clearly love what it
is that you do. I can see the smiles on
your face and the rise smiles on your face as
you're going along talking about this, Kelly, So how does
this work? I mean you get a child nominated, and
then what does the child get to pick or how
do they get to pick it, or how does that work.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Each one of the parties has a destination and lists
everything that's included in the party. So, like we'll take
for instance, the Midway Lanes party. It's up to eight kids.
They get game cards, they get a bowling pin, they
get pizza and lanes for bowling, and the cupcakes come
(08:16):
from Bits of Heaven or cash Wise South.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
And so we send out the instructions to the nominating
person and they get it to the family where they
call and they book the party, and they have all
the means to pay for it electronically sent to us
to the nominating partner okay.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
And then the kid gets to pick a certain number
of friends if they if they so choose, or family
or whomever.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Most of the parties are eight to ten kids, okay.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
And when you're talking about let's take for example, the
bowling you know this is you get an opportunity to
bowling bowl, but you don't have to if you just
want to sit and eat pisa. That's fine too, right, yep.
What are some of your and recognize you've only been
at this for about eighteen months a little less in
two years. What are some of your more memorable events
that you've done.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Well.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
One that sticks out to me is that I got
a call from one of the nominating partners letting me
know that they asked if they could pick up the
cupcakes and have those on the actual child's birth date,
but then have the bowling party a couple weeks later,
because it was for a foster child that had not
seen his siblings in two years, and all the siblings
were going to get together and bowl together, so.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
It was pretty great.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
So he had two parties, one at home with his
foster family with the cupcakes, and then with his actual
siblings at Midway Lanes.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
And when they when you know clearly that the joy
on these kids' faces has to be indescribable.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, and it And just so the nature of this
were we preserve the anonymous of the kid through through
the nominating process and whatnot, but we get to experience
the secondhand through the feedback we get and stories like
Kelly shared and at another one recently of mine of
a good friend that does good work in the community,
and he nominated a He had a man who was
(10:06):
struggling in addiction getting his life back on track and
he got to have his daughter for his birthday for
the first time ever as she was turning eight, and
he was excited about it, but he also said, I
don't know how to throw her a special birthday, and
my friend nominated him for this birthday Beacon party, and
he said afterwards that guy came back and said his
daughter said it was the best day of her life.
And you think about the trajectory of those two people's
(10:29):
life and how this party intersects with that and just says, hey,
the future is going to be different, and here's a
day that proves it. And just have a chance to
do that into someone's life and whatnot. It's really exciting.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
And so you know, going back to how the two
of you came upon this decision, this was it sparked
at a corporate retreat for the company that you both
worked for, and you decided to take this and embrace this.
How did this idea come up?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
So yeah, and we we had uh again, we had
really just challenged ourselves. The company we work for, Lightolse Commodities,
was started a live a little very Lighthouse Commodities.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
I want to get I want to get into what
they do as well. Here for in a second, but continue.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
But we had started from scratch about ten years ago,
and like a lot of startup companies, you you spend
a lot of time on how you just how do
I make it from today to tomorrow? And we got
ten years in and we said we're we're really good
at how here and and and I mean we're not.
We're on pretty stable ground, but we just need to
revisit why and and we said, you know, part of
(11:35):
our why is we want to give back to the
community in a in a big way, but that we
feel inside of our organization too, that our whole organization
feels here's an impact that we had. And and you
can there's a lot of just felt needs that are
out there. There's certainly hunger and clothing and stuff like that,
and and and those are important and critical, but if
you don't match those with why, you know, why is
(11:57):
it important to meet these I think there's that's still
a gap. And we said, here's a way we could
show just Uh, you know someone that's going through a
lot of cloudy days. Here's what a really good sunny
day feels like this. This is why it's so important
to go after more that I want to have more
days like that, et cetera. And so it's it's a
mission we gravitated to and then just it fits our
(12:19):
organization well because it's actually a lot of work administering
this many birthday parties. Yes, and it's been really rewarding
just to solve those business challenges, to apply our considerable
business acumen not just to making money for ourselves, but
to just deliver this into the community. It's it's been
really good for our team internally.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
And bringing joy to children I think should be, you know,
aspirational for all of us. I want to commend you
and and the organization that you've put together and execute.
Let's talk about your company here for a second. Why
don't you give some background and and and that sort
of thing.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yes, Lato's Commodities is essentially trades grain physical grain and
then financial products. And so we help primarily farmers just
have better outcomes on their grain marketing, or at least
that's the goal. And we've been doing that for a
long time, and that's that's kind of out of that
background is how we transition the form Birthday Beacon.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
We need to go to a commercial break. This is
Dakota Morning Zime. Your host, Michael Bell kf y R
five fifty AM, not a nine point seven FM. We
are inn iHeartMedia Production. We are joined in studio by
David Spickler Kelly McGregor. Birthday Beacon. Welcome back to Dakota
Morning z i'me your host, Michael Bell kf y R
five fifty AM, not a nine point seven FM. We
are joined in studio by David Spickler Kelly McGregor Birthday Beacon.
(13:43):
How do people get involved in this? I mean, over
and above nominating children, which comes as very natural to
y'all out of some of you know time, I'm talking
about time and treasure. If somebody wants to get more
involved with this.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
So I think there's two main ways. I can speak
to one and Kelly can speak to the other. One
is just just awareness period. Just we've worked out this
whole mechanics you're able to deliver these life changing parties
and whatnot in the and and and how to do
that efficiently and stuff, but then nobody knows we exist.
(14:16):
So that's the next and that's inherent, and so what
you're doing is is a huge help. And just coming
away from stuff like this, if people can just follow
us on social media on Facebook, invite their friends and
just just that alone tends to connect to others that
want to help in other ways and whatnot. So just
just following us on social At one point, not too
(14:36):
long ago, we had thrown more birthday parties. Then we
had social media follow.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Up, and I think that that is that to me
is the mark of a great organization that is delivering
really really well. And and I hope to be part
of the growth of the organization because again, who doesn't
like cupcakes?
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Absolutely, and we were working on backup cupcakes vendors too.
If we run out of bits of Heaven can make
for us, we'll never be short of cupcakes. We promised
everyone that so well. And then the other one, just
if you want to get involved with with your time
with your hands, I think Kelly, we've got some opportunities
there too.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Oh yes, we have two main events. First off, we
have our five K party run, which we're hoping to
make that larger, and that would probably be in May
of next year, and then this year we're going to
do a trunk or treat in October.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Let's go back to the five K. So you're requiring
people to run, Let's talk about that for a second.
This is a really you just had. You probably just
had it, and and you're loading up again for next year.
Are you going to keep the five k component to it?
Do people find that to be desirable?
Speaker 4 (15:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, And we have cupcakes at every water station, so
it's great. You absolutely don't have to run. You can
walk to each cupcake station.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Right, And this is a tour of cupcakes, and I
would encourage people to participate in this, and then let's
talk about the trunk or treat in the fall.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
We haven't. This is new to us. We're going to
for the first time.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Yes, and so it's probably going to be in our
where our office building is. There's like there's other offices
right in that area and it's on an off street.
So we're going to just have each station have different
themes for the kids to go trigger treating at. And
it's just mostly to bring awareness. It's not really a
fundraiser situation. It's mostly to bring awareness.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Okay, because that's what you're trying to tackle right now.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Is the awareness, just awareness that the rest we as
we've seen already all take care of itself. Awareness can
access to the other businesses, people, et cetera that want
to support financially, to other nominating partners to inspire people
themselves to nominate deserving kids and whatnot. Our focus right
now is just awareness overall.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Now you're the company for which you both work, they
seem to be heavily involved and deeply appreciative of your efforts.
Is this taking more and more of your time as
you go along? Or you looking to spread the wealth
here with not only within your company but also throughout.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
At some point that may get to where just the
administration of this many parties goes beyond just what can
be volunteered inside of our company or a board and whatnot.
And that's also too. There's opportunities if you want to
get directly involved in administering this program if you feel
called to just you know, serve on the board, actually
help volunteer in some way in the day to day operations.
(17:30):
That that that workload is is growing too as the
program expands.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Yeah, and again, somebody doesn't need to come in and
volunteer for forty hours a week. If they're willing to
give an hour or two a week, then that is
a great help to you guys.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yeah, yeah, any any focused time, inspired focused time can
be put to good use for sure.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Okay, and you know the last question, do you feel
that the future is very bright for this?
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah? And I we tend to do in our business
life and in our nonprofit here now too. We just
we just start on something and just don't stop. So
the finish line is never We would just will be
limited by how much awareness, how much support, how we
find others like yourself that just gravitate, but we wouldn't stop,
like there's no finish line to We'll find everyone in
(18:20):
Bismarck that deserves a party, moved through the rest to
North Dakota and just create a wave that moves as
far as we can take it. I mean, that's that's
how we approach stuff like this.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
And Kelly, I want to highlight your your sponsors. You
know you're talking about the Bismarck Public Schools, banded in
public Schools, the Dakota Children's Advocacy Center. These are willing
and desirous partners from your regard.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Absolutely, we would not be able to do this without them.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
They bring us the children that are in need of
the parties, and they help us execute the party.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
David Speckler, Kelly McGregor, thank you so much for joining
us this morning and for the great work you do
with where they begin.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Thank you. Michael, this is all standing.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
This is Dakota Mornings. I am your host, Michael Bell
k f y R five fifty AM not A nine
point seven FM. Next up Tuesday ten Sports
Welcome back to Dakota Mornings. I'm your host, Michael Bell
kf y R five fifty AM nine to nine points
seven FM. We're an iHeartMedia production and we are joined
again in studio this morning by David Spickler Kelly McGregor.
Birthday Beacon and I read an article you know, a
little bit ago, a couple of weeks ago or so,
(00:20):
and I said to Magic Sam, I was like, we
have got to get these people in. This is an
incredible organization. I love everything you do, So why don't
you give us a background on Birthday Beacon.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, sure we'll do, and thank you for the chance
to come here and visit. We're so excited to be
my pleasure and so Birthday Beacon essentially we were found
at a little less than two years ago just on
five words. Every child deserves a party. We provide fun,
destination birthday parties for kids that may not otherwise get
to experience one kids for whatever search situation in that
(00:54):
family or that life that they may not be able
to get to have that incredible birthday or that incredible party.
What Birthday Beacon and does is is finds those kids
and throws them a party.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
And I love it the destination aspect of it. Can
you just give us a you know, sky Zone, I
know is one location that you utilize and but there
are a number of.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Others, so that scalo you. You've been instable gold and
setting up all Why don't you rattle off all the
incredible places a kid can have a party at.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Tilt Studios, Midway Lanes, Jump Works formerly Skyzone, Jumped Up Bs,
the Aquatic Center BFW, you can do hockey and skating
four seasons, batting cages, the Larks, Dakota Zoo, Bismarck Gymnastics Academy,
and Hillside Pool.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
This is an incredible opportunity to a population which ordinarily
would go somewhat overlooked. And I appreciate that. So you
are you're just right now in the in the Bismarck
Mandan area, although you have some some other in like Carrington,
for example, you've done some events there. How much fun
(02:06):
is it to do this? How much fun was it
to stand up this organization.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So it's really rewarding for us. It's been a unique
thing to just it was part of why we did this.
This was kind of borne out of the company that
Kelly and I worked for, and we had spent years
just in corporate life with how just every day coming
into work and how we did this. And about a
year and a half ago we were to corporate retreat
and just said, we need to focus on why a
little bit more. Why are we coming in every day
(02:32):
and going to work, Why are we solving all these problems?
What is this leading towards? And this is what we
landed on. Part of our just experience here, just our
lived experience is going to be that we're going to
help find kids and this community and throwing birthday parties
and it's been incredibly rewarding. It's also been rewarding to
just solve the challenge of how do you deliver this
(02:54):
many parties on a given month.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
We're throwing twenty every single day.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Just about every day somebody, on average, somebody is receiving
a Birthday Beacon party, and just just the mechanics of
all that. It's been kind of a fun, fun business
challenge to solve and it really helps those of us
that are involved in Birthday Beacon. It's really neat to
have this thing that we just gravitate to. And just
like your response, Michael, it seems like almost every day
(03:19):
we meet someone that just says, this is awesome, just
immediately connects with a mission of why it's so important
for those young you know, for a young child to
get to experience a great day when they may not
otherwise have a bunch of great days, a bunch of
great memories and whatnot. So it's been really fun for
us just to get surrounded by people that think and
feel the way we do and see the impact that
(03:40):
this mission has had and just some of the feedback
we get and the experiences with it.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, your appearance on here is deeply appreciated. Your appearance
on Decode of Mornings is I can't thank you enough
for coming in. You're about to get real road busy.
How do you somebody, because there's a nomination process where
you nominate a child for this for this part, how
does someone go about doing that?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Well, that's a good We put a lot of thought
into this because you want to thread the needle between
you want to find deserving children that deserve a partner.
You want to avoid maybe just just an overwhelming just
people motivated by less than deserving reasons and whatnot. And Kelly,
I think you can describe. We came up with a
pretty incredible way for how we go about doing that.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Well, we reached out to Bismarck Public Schools first, and
the school counselors and the social workers there and Mandan
Public Schools. Also, Morton County Social Services, Burley County Social Services,
Better Together and Dakota Children's Advocacy Center are our main
nominators we have.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
We've had somebody from just about every organization you listed
here on d Code of Mornings. So continued, Please.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
We have a.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Electronic form that is just sent out just to selected
nominated partners, and they select the families and fill out
that form, select the party, and we get everything back
to the nominator to get to the family.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Okay, And how does somebody access.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
That they would need to contact the schools or a
social worker at Berley County or Martin County Social Services.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Okay. So, and one of the things that well, we
will endeavor to do here is to try to link
up I'm sure you guys are going to use this
podcast and when it's reduced to a podcast, you're going
to use this as some marketing for those various entities.
We appreciate that, but most importantly, who doesn't love cake?
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Right?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Absolutely, I have a lot of great memories that are
cake adjacent at least. And and and I think that's
a unique And you have a wonderful baker here in
town that provides cupcakes for every one of these parties,
and just that that whole experience has just been an
incredible It's it's something that that just every time we
(05:57):
get feedback off of one of these parties, it's great.
And I be you've you've dished out almost three thousand
cupcakes I think out of all the parties we've thrown
so far.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
So that's great. So, speaking of which, let's talk about
some of your sponsors, some of your you know, foundational sponsors.
Let's highlight them.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So, yeah, so we've we've been fortunate to have a
lot of individual donors come alongside us and support financially
in any any way we can. And actually we've had
a handful of of of major just corporate sponsors that
have really affected the trajectory of this business. The company
that we work for, Lightolse Commodities, has been a major sponsor,
(06:36):
A Cornerstone bank here in town and throughout North Dakota
has been a major sponsor. Uh it used to be
Red Trail Energy now Jievo and that Nero, they've been
a huge sponsor.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
They're doing great things out there in the month.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah region, Yeah, transformative and they got big plans for
what's next and yeah, big big plans. And just there
you see some of that alignment to where these these
businesses that are so innovative and so client focused and
so how do we bring technology to make our business better?
Are also the ones that have come alongside us and
(07:10):
said we gravitate to this mission. We just want to
help people, period and whatnot. So they've been and then
the parties were throwing in Carrington, New Rockford, Minewaukan. That
sendaut Cooperative has been a major financial spots or two.
So we've been really fortunate to have some businesses say
we want this to be part of our why. Also
we want part of our why as a company to
be that we help throw parties for kids that may
(07:31):
not get to We've been very fortunate right out of
the gate to have some excellent support.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Well, and you guys, you too clearly love what it
is that you do. I can see the smiles on
your face and the rise smiles on your face as
you're going along talking about this, Kelly, So how does
this work? I mean you get a child nominated, and
then what does the child get to pick or how
do they get to pick it, or how does that work.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Each one of the parties has a destination and lists
everything that's included in the party. So, like we'll take
for instance, the Midway Lanes party. It's up to eight kids.
They get game cards, they get a bowling pin, they
get pizza and lanes for bowling, and the cupcakes come
(08:16):
from Bits of Heaven or cash Wise South.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
And so we send out the instructions to the nominating
person and they get it to the family where they
call and they book the party, and they have all
the means to pay for it electronically sent to us
to the nominating partner okay.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
And then the kid gets to pick a certain number
of friends if they if they so choose, or family
or whomever.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Most of the parties are eight to ten kids, okay.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
And when you're talking about let's take for example, the
bowling you know this is you get an opportunity to
bowling bowl, but you don't have to if you just
want to sit and eat pisa. That's fine too, right, yep.
What are some of your and recognize you've only been
at this for about eighteen months a little less in
two years. What are some of your more memorable events
that you've done.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Well.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
One that sticks out to me is that I got
a call from one of the nominating partners letting me
know that they asked if they could pick up the
cupcakes and have those on the actual child's birth date,
but then have the bowling party a couple weeks later,
because it was for a foster child that had not
seen his siblings in two years, and all the siblings
were going to get together and bowl together, so.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
It was pretty great.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
So he had two parties, one at home with his
foster family with the cupcakes, and then with his actual
siblings at Midway Lanes.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
And when they when you know clearly that the joy
on these kids' faces has to be indescribable.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, and it And just so the nature of this
were we preserve the anonymous of the kid through through
the nominating process and whatnot, but we get to experience
the secondhand through the feedback we get and stories like
Kelly shared and at another one recently of mine of
a good friend that does good work in the community,
and he nominated a He had a man who was
(10:06):
struggling in addiction getting his life back on track and
he got to have his daughter for his birthday for
the first time ever as she was turning eight, and
he was excited about it, but he also said, I
don't know how to throw her a special birthday, and
my friend nominated him for this birthday Beacon party, and
he said afterwards that guy came back and said his
daughter said it was the best day of her life.
And you think about the trajectory of those two people's
(10:29):
life and how this party intersects with that and just says, hey,
the future is going to be different, and here's a
day that proves it. And just have a chance to
do that into someone's life and whatnot. It's really exciting.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
And so you know, going back to how the two
of you came upon this decision, this was it sparked
at a corporate retreat for the company that you both
worked for, and you decided to take this and embrace this.
How did this idea come up?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
So yeah, and we we had uh again, we had
really just challenged ourselves. The company we work for, Lightolse Commodities,
was started a live a little very Lighthouse Commodities.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
I want to get I want to get into what
they do as well. Here for in a second, but continue.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
But we had started from scratch about ten years ago,
and like a lot of startup companies, you you spend
a lot of time on how you just how do
I make it from today to tomorrow? And we got
ten years in and we said we're we're really good
at how here and and and I mean we're not.
We're on pretty stable ground, but we just need to
revisit why and and we said, you know, part of
(11:35):
our why is we want to give back to the
community in a in a big way, but that we
feel inside of our organization too, that our whole organization
feels here's an impact that we had. And and you
can there's a lot of just felt needs that are
out there. There's certainly hunger and clothing and stuff like that,
and and and those are important and critical, but if
you don't match those with why, you know, why is
(11:57):
it important to meet these I think there's that's still
a gap. And we said, here's a way we could
show just Uh, you know someone that's going through a
lot of cloudy days. Here's what a really good sunny
day feels like this. This is why it's so important
to go after more that I want to have more
days like that, et cetera. And so it's it's a
mission we gravitated to and then just it fits our
(12:19):
organization well because it's actually a lot of work administering
this many birthday parties. Yes, and it's been really rewarding
just to solve those business challenges, to apply our considerable
business acumen not just to making money for ourselves, but
to just deliver this into the community. It's it's been
really good for our team internally.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
And bringing joy to children I think should be, you know,
aspirational for all of us. I want to commend you
and and the organization that you've put together and execute.
Let's talk about your company here for a second. Why
don't you give some background and and and that sort
of thing.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yes, Lato's Commodities is essentially trades grain physical grain and
then financial products. And so we help primarily farmers just
have better outcomes on their grain marketing, or at least
that's the goal. And we've been doing that for a
long time, and that's that's kind of out of that
background is how we transition the form Birthday Beacon.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
We need to go to a commercial break. This is
Dakota Morning Zime. Your host, Michael Bell kf y R
five fifty AM, not a nine point seven FM. We
are inn iHeartMedia Production. We are joined in studio by
David Spickler Kelly McGregor. Birthday Beacon. Welcome back to Dakota
Morning z i'me your host, Michael Bell kf y R
five fifty AM, not a nine point seven FM. We
are joined in studio by David Spickler Kelly McGregor Birthday Beacon.
(13:43):
How do people get involved in this? I mean, over
and above nominating children, which comes as very natural to
y'all out of some of you know time, I'm talking
about time and treasure. If somebody wants to get more
involved with this.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
So I think there's two main ways. I can speak
to one and Kelly can speak to the other. One
is just just awareness period. Just we've worked out this
whole mechanics you're able to deliver these life changing parties
and whatnot in the and and and how to do
that efficiently and stuff, but then nobody knows we exist.
(14:16):
So that's the next and that's inherent, and so what
you're doing is is a huge help. And just coming
away from stuff like this, if people can just follow
us on social media on Facebook, invite their friends and
just just that alone tends to connect to others that
want to help in other ways and whatnot. So just
just following us on social At one point, not too
(14:36):
long ago, we had thrown more birthday parties. Then we
had social media follow.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Up, and I think that that is that to me
is the mark of a great organization that is delivering
really really well. And and I hope to be part
of the growth of the organization because again, who doesn't
like cupcakes?
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Absolutely, and we were working on backup cupcakes vendors too.
If we run out of bits of Heaven can make
for us, we'll never be short of cupcakes. We promised
everyone that so well. And then the other one, just
if you want to get involved with with your time
with your hands, I think Kelly, we've got some opportunities
there too.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Oh yes, we have two main events. First off, we
have our five K party run, which we're hoping to
make that larger, and that would probably be in May
of next year, and then this year we're going to
do a trunk or treat in October.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Let's go back to the five K. So you're requiring
people to run, Let's talk about that for a second.
This is a really you just had. You probably just
had it, and and you're loading up again for next year.
Are you going to keep the five k component to it?
Do people find that to be desirable?
Speaker 4 (15:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, And we have cupcakes at every water station, so
it's great. You absolutely don't have to run. You can
walk to each cupcake station.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Right, And this is a tour of cupcakes, and I
would encourage people to participate in this, and then let's
talk about the trunk or treat in the fall.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
We haven't. This is new to us. We're going to
for the first time.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Yes, and so it's probably going to be in our
where our office building is. There's like there's other offices
right in that area and it's on an off street.
So we're going to just have each station have different
themes for the kids to go trigger treating at. And
it's just mostly to bring awareness. It's not really a
fundraiser situation. It's mostly to bring awareness.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Okay, because that's what you're trying to tackle right now.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Is the awareness, just awareness that the rest we as
we've seen already all take care of itself. Awareness can
access to the other businesses, people, et cetera that want
to support financially, to other nominating partners to inspire people
themselves to nominate deserving kids and whatnot. Our focus right
now is just awareness overall.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Now you're the company for which you both work, they
seem to be heavily involved and deeply appreciative of your efforts.
Is this taking more and more of your time as
you go along? Or you looking to spread the wealth
here with not only within your company but also throughout.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
At some point that may get to where just the
administration of this many parties goes beyond just what can
be volunteered inside of our company or a board and whatnot.
And that's also too. There's opportunities if you want to
get directly involved in administering this program if you feel
called to just you know, serve on the board, actually
help volunteer in some way in the day to day operations.
(17:30):
That that that workload is is growing too as the
program expands.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Yeah, and again, somebody doesn't need to come in and
volunteer for forty hours a week. If they're willing to
give an hour or two a week, then that is
a great help to you guys.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yeah, yeah, any any focused time, inspired focused time can
be put to good use for sure.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Okay, and you know the last question, do you feel
that the future is very bright for this?
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah? And I we tend to do in our business
life and in our nonprofit here now too. We just
we just start on something and just don't stop. So
the finish line is never We would just will be
limited by how much awareness, how much support, how we
find others like yourself that just gravitate, but we wouldn't stop,
like there's no finish line to We'll find everyone in
(18:20):
Bismarck that deserves a party, moved through the rest to
North Dakota and just create a wave that moves as
far as we can take it. I mean, that's that's
how we approach stuff like this.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
And Kelly, I want to highlight your your sponsors. You
know you're talking about the Bismarck Public Schools, banded in
public Schools, the Dakota Children's Advocacy Center. These are willing
and desirous partners from your regard.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Absolutely, we would not be able to do this without them.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
They bring us the children that are in need of
the parties, and they help us execute the party.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
David Speckler, Kelly McGregor, thank you so much for joining
us this morning and for the great work you do
with where they begin.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Thank you. Michael, this is all standing.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
This is Dakota Mornings. I am your host, Michael Bell
k f y R five fifty AM not A nine
point seven FM. Next up Tuesday ten Sports
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