Notable Women: Meg Yunn
By Layla Joeseph
As a child, birthdays are something to look forward to. A once-a-year celebration where you are the star of the show, a day of being showered in smiles, gifts and love from family and friends.
Unfortunately, that is not every child’s experience, and before Megs Yunn met Beverly, a child without a birthday was not something Yunn ever thought about before.
Yunn received her undergraduate degree in Organizational Communication with a focus on advertising and public relations and a minor in leadership studies from Marietta College before receiving an MBA in project management from Point Park University, leading her to a job at Washington Jefferson College.
Yunn said that she was visiting an afterschool program for a site visit, a routine task during her employment at Washington Jefferson College when she walked in and sat next to 11-year-old Beverly, who was doing her homework.
Beverly was tasked with using the word “accustomed” in a sentence. To help Beverly better understand the word’s context, Yunn asked, “At birthday parties, people are accustomed to eating what?”
That’s when Beverly explained that she had never had a birthday party or her own slice of birthday cake.
“I remember feeling so embarrassed,” Yunn recalled. “I never thought about a kid not having a happy birthday.”
Unknowingly, Beverly’s answer would change the lives of many Allegheny County children and the life of Yunn, now 38-years-old, who founded Beverly’s Birthdays, a non-profit organization whose mission is to celebrate in-need youth.
Yunn, a Pittsburgh native, wife, mother of four & founder of Beverly’s Birthdays
According to Census Reporter, 14% of children under 18-years-old in Allegheny County lived at or below the federal poverty line in 2021.
Yunn, a Pittsburgh native, wife and mother of four, decided almost 12 years ago that she needed to make a difference in the lives of children like Beverly.
After extensive research, Yunn said she submitted her non-profit idea to a contest through Scholastic Books, where she was chosen out of 1,000 other contestants for the $2,500 grand prize.
Now, the non-profit has evolved, and Yunn said she is tasked with raising over $2.5 million yearly to continue supporting and celebrating families.
The organization has six programs: birthday celebrations, Birthday Cheer Boxes, Classroom Cheer, Beverly’s Babies, The Birthday Boutique and Milestones.
“All of those programs come back to a story I can share about how Beverly’s Birthdays have evolved,” Yunn said.
After putting together more and more birthday parties each year, Yunn decided to reach out to schools.
With their school-based program, Classroom Cheer, Beverly’s Birthdays has celebrated over 100,000 birthdays.
At a birthday party hosted by the organization, Yunn said she met a young girl who mentioned she had never owned a dress. This conversation inspired The Birthday Boutique, mobile fashion trucks that are present at birthday parties to provide youth with new clothes and accessories.
In 2022, the organization expanded its mission to celebrate “birth” days with Beverly’s Babies. With free community baby showers, Itty Bitty Diaper Bags, the Year of Cheer Program and the opening of the region's first and only infant formula bank, Beverly’s Babies have been providing support and resources to babies across the ‘Burgh.
Yunn explained that the organization has been quietly helping new and expecting parents of Pittsburgh for years. As the organization grew, so were Yunn’s own children, which meant she was pregnant for most of the organization's beginning.
Almost a decade before the birth of Beverly’s Babies, Yunn was brainstorming ways to add another candle to the cake and support Pittsburgh parents.
“Since I was pregnant, I had a shared life experience with many of the moms at the shelters I would visit,” she said. “But I had a lot more resources and a support system. Everyone deserves to have that.”
Throughout the last 11 years, Yunn said she has met incredible families and has no regrets about her decisions.
“I love what I do,” she said. “The work, families and programs are really just an extension of my heart. I love them as dearly as I love my own children. It feels like we have created a community of cheer.”
Pittsburgh is big but so small, according to Yunn. She attributes some of the organization's success to the people of Pittsburgh, who have been willing to donate their time, talent and treasure to the cause of spreading cheer.
“Pittsburghers tend to bleed black and gold, but I have met a lot of people who bleed glitter, too,” she shared.
Yunn said that she has had opportunities presented to her to expand Beverly's Birthdays outside of the region. Although that could be possible in the future, she hopes to continue focusing on the children and families close to home.
“There are a lot of families and children in our community that are still forgotten,” she said. “There are children not being celebrated and supported. I would rather focus my energy on my hometown than spread out yet because there is still a lot of work to be done.”
As a successful non-profit leader, Yunn said those looking to start their own community organization should treat doing so like a business.
“Even though it’s a non-profit, you have to do your research,” she said. “See if there is that need and come up with a plan. The last thing you want to do is recreate the wheel.”
Yunn explained that if an organization had already served this mission in the region, she'd have been the first to volunteer simply because she believed in the cause.
“If you’re looking to start an organization and there's a need, just start it,” she said. “I didn’t know 11 years ago where I would be now, I just knew there was a need. I listened, did my research and talked to experts. The fact that I didn’t know the destination really allowed me to enjoy the journey.”
"Listening is a big part of improving a community," she explained. "Ask, how can I be part of a solution? How can I listen and advocate? How can I lean in, or how can I be quiet?"
