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Enterprise file photo — Michael Koff

Close to home: Fazana Ismail, right, of Guilderland holds birthday parties for homeless children at centers not in town. Volunteers from Guilderland — Westmere Elementary staff were at this spring party — have help out. “Parents say it’s hard to explain the concept of poverty to their children,” said Ismail. “A birthday is something all kids can relate to.” Poverty, she said, “becomes a lot more real when they help with these parties.”