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At-risk Murray County children celebrated on their birthday by nonprofit organization

Contributed Photo by Angels at Heart / Angels at Heart pivoted its mission during the pandemic, offering birthday parties to at-risk and foster care children in Murray County. This child, whose identity has been protected, was photographed since the program's pivot last year.
Contributed Photo by Angels at Heart / Angels at Heart pivoted its mission during the pandemic, offering birthday parties to at-risk and foster care children in Murray County. This child, whose identity has been protected, was photographed since the program's pivot last year. Contributed Photo by Angels at Heart / Angels at Heart pivoted its mission during the pandemic, offering birthday parties to at-risk and foster care children in Murray County. This child, whose identity has been protected, was photographed since the program's pivot last year.

By Andrew Wilkins 5 min read


Checking out at a Dalton-area Walmart in 2012, Merinda McGill got a surprise hug from a young woman she hadn’t seen in years.

McGill worked as a contractor for Georgia’s Division of Family & Children Services for 11 years, and the now-young woman had briefly been in the state’s and the Chatsworth resident’s care in 2009. Because a suitable home couldn’t be found, the girl was staying with McGill at a Murray County hotel on her 16th birthday.

“When she told me she had never had a birthday cake, party or anything, it was heart-wrenching to me,” McGill said in a phone interview. So McGill took the girl to get her nails done, bought her a birthday cake and had the hotel staff get together to sing her “Happy Birthday” on a picnic table outside the Key West Inn in Chatsworth.

The birthday girl, McGill and hotel staff all cried that day, and the birthday girl told McGill years later in Walmart that the impromptu birthday party was a big turning point in her life. McGill said the young woman looked great, was doing well and working full time while training for a career at community college.