I love March.  It means so many things.  Daffodils (my all-time fave flower) from the American Cancer Society.  The chance that spring (my all-time fave season) might actually arrive.  March Madness, which pretty much annually features the Kansas Jayhawks (my all-time fave team).  In addition and most importantly, it’s the month of my birthday!  Womb emancipation, as my friend calls it.  My birth month is part of my birthseason.  I may have made up that word but why limit my birthday to a day, much less a week or month?  I love cake, presents and being feted.  Birthdays are the perfect holiday.  And quite frankly, for all those who try to deny their age, I can’t help but think that every birthday beats the grim alternative.  So don’t hesitate to wish me a happy birthday even if it was the 15th.  I’m an equal opportunity gift and good wishes recipient.

Another event I look forward to in March is The Food Group’s Tacofest friendraiser.  The Food Group was born as a grassroots effort of community members who were alerted to the plight of hungry kids in Sheridan County.  Incredibly, we’re seven years old and there is a small but mighty army of volunteers who make sure that 480 kids have food every weekend.

The group started small as so many nonprofits do.  We saw a need and got busy.  Obviously, feeding kids (even the 80 we did the first year) isn’t an inexpensive venture.  That means fundraising.  And what a first fundraiser it was back in 2011. The Craft Brothers played in St. Peter’s sanctuary (all blessedly free) and Torrey and Karen Moody of Taco John’s provided all the fixings for a huge taco feed.  Once again, completely free for us. We had a couple hundred people come to our first ever Tacofest and it was wildly successful.

Pretty much every March for the last five years, the Moodys have continued to provide a major taco feed for five more years of our Tacofest fundraiser. It was amazing and we are beyond grateful.  The bad news for those of you who, like me, looked forward to Taco John’s feeding your family on a Friday night in March (all for a great cause), is that the Tacofest has been retired.

The good news is that you can plan on us feeding your family on June 10th from 10-2 at the YMCA Soccer Fields during our Family Funfest!  All for the same great cause!  There will be a climbing wall, music, face painting and yummy food so not only will your kids be entertained, they’ll also be fed.  Much like the 480 kids who rely on The Food Group to make sure they’re well fed and ready to learn on Monday at school.

To recap – the most important thing you should remember about March, other than to cheer wildly for the Jayhawks, is that it’s my birthmonth.  Now that you’ve mastered that, it’ll be a piece of birthday cake to remember the new Funfest in June.  Put them both on your calendar.