When daughter Abbie’s ninth birthday was on the horizon this summer, Bothell’s Amy Heinrich-Kehr hoped she could take that upcoming event in a less traditional direction.

“She has a late summer birthday and she likes to have a lot kids over every year,” Heinrich-Kehr said.

Naturally, those friends and relatives normally would bring presents.

“We suggested to her maybe she didn’t need all those gifts,” Heinrich-Kehr added.

“I already have plenty of stuff and I really didn’t need anything,” Abbie said.

According to mom, at one point, Abbie admitted she didn’t even know what she would ask to receive for her birthday.

“We started looking into different things she could do and came up with the idea of school supplies,” said Heinrich-Kehr.

She then heard about local retailer Sleep Country U.S.A.’s annual school-supply drive. In the end, instead of guests and relatives bringing Abbie gifts, they were asked to bring school supplies that were then donated to Sleep Country. Heinrich-Kehr admitted she wasn’t sure at first how the overall idea might be received.

“People responded well,” she said.

“It was a good thing because my friends all helped me get stuff,” Abbie added.

“Sleep County was really good about making a big deal out of it,” continued Heinrich-Kehr, who said the birthday party generated several boxes full of backpacks, notebooks, crayons, markers and similar items.

Sleep Country executives met with the family, who was taken on a tour of the company’s factory. Abbie said the company collected a lot of different things during the school-supply drive.

“They said I did a lot of the stuff that was in the warehouse,” Abbie said, adding she knows new supplies can help kids do better in school.

“It helps with homework and stuff,” she said.

Overall, Sleep Country representatives said the school-supply drive generated more than 46,000 individual items that were handed out to 20 foster-care organizations in Washington and Oregon. This was the fourth year for the drive.

“Through continued outreach to our northwest communities including targeted advertising, public relations and marketing, we’ve been able to make each successive school-supply drive more successful than the last,” said Sleep Country Vice President Terry Horsley.

Heinrich-Kehr added she’ll leave it up to Abbie to decide if she wants to do something similar in the future. Abbie admitted she isn’t sure what she’ll do next time her birthday rolls around.

“She’s an only child, but she’s not a spoiled child,” Heinrich-Kehr said, adding it sometimes bothers her to see children Abbie’s age with multiple video-games systems, tons of toys and name-brand clothes.

“What is really disturbing to me is that kids seems to think they are entitled to it all,” she said.