The Birthday Gift by Ellie Kraner

“Ellie comes out of Grove Street School in a hurry on Friday afternoons. She is heading to the grocery store on the corner. Ellie gets paid on Thursday for helping her mother with the dishes each night. She buys a special treat at the store and is walking to her Nana’s house . . . And who does she meet along the way?”

Author Ellie Blaisdell Kraner is pastor of the Brookfield, Massachusetts, Congregational Church and a marriage and family therapist and spiritual director. Her passions include kids, dogs, reading, travel and gardening. She and her husband Dave raised four daughters and are the grandparents of six. This is her first published book.

Artist Lin Bourie helps support a ministry that impacts the lives of disenfranchised women and children. Her latest projects include murals, portraits, house portraits, jewelry, and producing prints and cards of original work. She has illustrated a children’s book about the Stari Most Bridge in Mostar Bosnia. She and her husband George have raised their three daughters in central Massachusetts.

A portion of the proceeds go to helping the Sugar Cane Kids go to school and eat at least one meal a day.

On the eastern savannahs of the Dominican Republic, sugar cane is harvested by men who live in some of the most primitive conditions in the Western Hemisphere. They barely earn enough to feed themselves, let alone their families. Yet their families are happy. Their children play and laugh just like our kids, but they go to bed hungry most nights. If their families can afford the school uniform, shoes, and a few pesos for a meal, these Sugar Cane Kids can attend school. When they are allowed to attend school, many excel at their studies and go on to graduate from the best universities in the Dominican Republic.