Last Saturday morning at a function hall on Blue Hill Avenue, Shiaka McIntosh dove into a pile of blue balloons that stretched from the floor to the ceiling and retrieved a cluster to be placed around the hall.

The balloons and ‘Bluey’ cartoon party supplies were part of a huge celebration for Kingston, a young boy turning two whose mother was lost to gun violence last year, and whom McIntosh chose for her ‘Parties from Above.’

“Kingston is my godson, my sister’s baby, and my sister passed two years ago due to gun violence when she was 23. Kingston was only five months old,” said Bria Reid, who takes care of her nephew.

“Shiaka has been amazing. I didn’t know how I would do everything for Kingston to have a great birthday, but she came out of nowhere and blessed us. She’s been an angel to this family.”

McIntosh isn’t a professional party planner. She is a certified nursing assistant (CNA) who loves putting together celebrations in her off-hours. “Parties from Above” came from her experiences in 2016 when her son’s father, community leader Marcus Anthony Hall, was murdered in a Mattapan barber shop while their son, then 4, was getting a haircut.

McIntosh said she understands the pain kids feel after losing parents to gun violence, drug overdoses, or medical illnesses.

Marcus “would always rush around to get the cake and make sure everything was just right, but it changed after he was killed,” she said. “Now my kids’ birthdays are fun, but it’s not the same. There’s no more of him helping. I know what it feels like for my kids and I want to help these other families with that. Birthdays are always a reminder of, ‘I wish my mom or dad were there.’”

McIntosh has done 20 parties in the last six months. Some have been in private homes, but more recently she has been hosting events at the new function hall and community center at 1102 Blue Hill Ave., owned by Cleon Byron. While she uses her talents for paying customers there as well, Byron frequently donates the space for the parties.

“Just seeing the smile on those kids’ faces when they leave, that says it all and that’s enough,” he said. “To be able to help out someone in a tough situation to have some happiness is enough.”

Kaira during her “Party from Above” last December at the 1102 Blue Hill Ave. function hall – a Care Bear party for her 11th birthday.
Photo courtesy Mahogany Payne

One of the first parties at the hall was for Kaira, a granddaughter of Mahogany Payne, who is raising Kaira and had a “Party from Above” last December. Payne lost two sons to gun violence, and her daughter – Kaira’s mom – died in 2023 after a battle with congestive heart failure. Kaira’s father died in 2022 from complications after taking a pill that he didn’t know wa laced with Fentanyl.

“Kaira was very close to both her mom and dad and lost them so close together,” said Payne. “I didn’t know what we would do and Shiaka reached out on Facebook and offered this party. Kaira wanted a Care Bear party and I tell you that party was seriously 1000 percent and then some. Talk about a party from above, this was magical and miraculous for us.”

Everything from the cake to the DJ to the décor was taken care of. “I kept trying to bring things or buy stuff and she kept saying ‘no, no, no,’ it’s all being donated,” Payne said.

McIntosh said she’s working on becoming a registered non-profit and hoping to find ways to offer more parties to more kids.

“I’m also thinking about foster kids who probably never had a party in their lives and a child whose parent might have died of cancer,” she said. “I want that one day to make them all feel special.”