For her birthday, Vacaville girl wants shoes -- for others

All Bailey Norman wants for her 12th birthday today is 300 pairs of shoes.

Nope, none are for her. The Vacaville youth plans to pass them out to foster youths in need over the weekend, and miss her team's soccer match in order to do it.

"Sometimes, one of the best gifts you can get is a gift to someone else," Bailey said Tuesday at her home.

Her mom, Stacey, said Bailey has always been a giving soul. As a child, she helped raise more than $100 for a fellow student with cancer. At 7, she cut her wavy, waist-length, golden-brown locks and donated them to Locks for Love.

These days, the big-hearted preteen is foregoing birthday gifts -- something most kids her age treasure -- to help foster youths as they prepare to go back to school.

"Every year we get new stuff, new clothes, new supplies," said Bailey of herself and her two sisters. The infants her family fosters also get great care, she said, but as for others she's come into contact with, "You see they don't have much and they need things. ... Sometimes all they have is the clothes on their back."

That, she says, is unacceptable. Which is why she and her mom partnered with Parents By Choice, a Stockton-based group expanding into Solano County, to make a difference.

"We couldn't just sit by and not help her fulfill her birthday wish," said Tyffany Wanberg with Parents by Choice. "We're extremely proud to sponsor her effort. We're really proud of her. ... And we hope to make this an annual event."

Tonight, Bailey will celebrate the big 1-2 at her home. There will be an 80s-themed dance in her garage and she'll reign as Madonna, back in the days when the rock star was all hair bows and lace. As her friends -- fiftysomething were invited -- arrive, they'll deposit their footwear contributions with Bailey's mom. At some point during the night, celebrants will also feast on a three-tiered birthday cake festooned with icing images of cassette tapes, the MTV logo and more.

On Friday, from 3 to 8 p.m., Bailey and supporters will host a shoe drive at Parents By Choice, 840 Lovers Lane, Vacaville. Participants are asked to bring in shoes of all types and sizes for youths up to age 18. Or, cash and gift cards are also welcomed. Donations are tax deductible.

The footwear will be distributed Sunday.

"I'm hoping to get 300 pairs of shoes," Bailey said wistfully. "Because there's about 200 people in foster care who need shoes."

Thus far, $45 in cash and four pairs of shoes, not including those awaiting pickup from her mom's co-workers, have been collected.

The shoe drive could be a start to something bigger. More birthdays are on the horizon, which possibly means outdoing the birthdays of before. Bailey said she'd have to think about the myriad prospects.

Her main goal is simply to help people. She does it as a volunteer with the Special Olympics and with the care she showers on family, friends and teammates on her soccer and softball teams.

"She's very mothering," said her mom, Stacey, with a laugh.

Bailey helps care for her older sister, who has special needs, she said, as well as a younger sister. She is also very involved in lending a hand with the family's foster children, all infants, placed with the family at intervals over the past eight months or so.

"We do one at a time," Stacey clarified, adding that the emotional component with the children is strong.

Stacey expressed extreme pride in Bailey, saying "She's a special kid. She always has been."

For more information on the shoe drive, email slnjln@aol.com.

If you're a foster parent with a foster child who needs shoes, call (707) 689-4497.

Follow Staff Writer Kimberly K. Fu at Twitter.com/ReporterKimFu.