Williams Lake children are being feted with birthday parades as COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have resulted in parties and gatherings being cancelled.
Sheryl Harras said she saw a video on Facebook that a friend in Kelowna had posted about hosting drive-by birthday parties and was inspired to do the same.
“I thought it would be great to do it here, so I posted in our mom’s group and so many moms were instantly supportive of it,” Harras told the Tribune Saturday.
“Our community is so amazing!,” she added. “I’ve had moms message me telling me that they were in tears because of my post. The family that we did the parade for yesterday said they were going to bring four cars to a parade. This couldn’t have been done without our amazing community of moms helping moms.”
Part of what sparked her to want to do it is because when she was a child she got the mumps and had to miss Halloween one year.
“I was so disappointed. My birthday is in April so I could really empathize with the children missing out on having a traditional birthday party.”
Tiffany Hall said her daughter Quinn was the first one to receive a birthday parade for her eight birthday on Friday, March 27, and it was heartwarming.
“My daughter had been planning her birthday for months and she doesn’t really understand the situation we are in completely,” Hall said, adding the family has been self-isolating for two weeks and taking social distancing very seriously.
Quinn stood at the end of the driveway in the back of a side-by-side and watched as people drove by honking and waving.
“She even got to see one of her classmates go by in a vehicle and that was nice because she hasn’t seen or talked to anyone of her classmates in a couple of weeks,” Hill said.
On Saturday afternoon in Williams Lake about 20 vehicles participated in two birthday drives.
They went past the Best Western up to Hamel Road for a third-year-old’s birthday at 3 p.m. and then out to Edwards Drive to greet Chase-Jackson Dyck whose eighth birthday was the day before.
After the vehicles had gone by, and he’d even received a gift from a boy in one of the vehicles, Chase-Jackson gave his mom Sonny a big hug.
“Thank you,” he said.
Read more: Williams Lake woman creates #heartsofwl decals, proceeds for Salvation Army food bank
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