For her birthday on Sunday, May 24, 2020, Mindy Arendt, president and co-founder of Friends with Benefits Denton, instead of getting gifts put together a fund-raiser for the Cumberland Presbyterian Children’s Home. She quickly raised more than her initial goal of $5,000.

Friends with Benefits had already teamed up with the Cumberland Presbyterian Children’s Home to provide special birthday parties for their kids. The group asks a donation of $100 to sponsor a birthday.

Friends with Benefits was formed by three friends, Kiara Helgesen, Mindy Arendt and Charlie Hunter, in Denton, Texas, in 2013. The group organizes arts and culinary fund-raising events to benefit charities in the Denton area.

Katie Klein, the chaplain at the children’s home, told donors: “Y’all! I cannot express the sheer joy of our kiddos and families when they realize they have a community to support them. I often explain that everything comes from someone else and people I don’t even know. It’s so hard for them to grasp that, considering their histories. Thank you. Please know everything you do brings so much good to their hearts.”

Read more in the Denton Record-Chronicle.