You only turn six once and for Austin Hall-Waters, his sixth birthday will always be one to remember.
On Sunday, June 2, Austin celebrated his birthday with a party, and six members of the Mission RCMP came out to wish him well. However, the police didn’t crash the party, they were invited.
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Austin’s mom, Christine Waters, explained that the youngster’s grandparents are both RCMP officers in Armstrong, so he’s grown up with police in his family.
“We have instilled in him that police officers are your friends and they take care of you,” said Christine.
However, in Austin’s mind, he “genuinely believes they all know him personally” and every single time he sees a police car or an officer he would say “there are my friends, they know me.”
This is Austin’s first year in Kindergarten, so when his birthday began to get close, he wanted to invite his friends to come to his party.
All his friends.
“He invited all his classmates and he had some invitations left over and he asked ‘what about my police friends?'”
His mom thought, sure why not.
He wrote up an invitation and he and his mom walked the police station and handed it to the woman in reception.
A short time later, an RCMP Constable called Christine and said they would try their best, but nothing guaranteed.
The family didn’t hear anything else about it for about a week, but then, on Sunday morning on the day of the party, they got the call.
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“They said they were super excited. They never get any invites and they would have five officers come down.”
In the end, six members of the Mission RCMP came to the party, one for every year that Austin was celebrating.
While it was supposed to be a surprise, Austin heard the phone call and knew the police were coming, but none of the guests did.
“Everyone was extremely excited… the first patrol car came in and they started flipping their sirens on… he was just squeezing my arm.”
One of the constables called out from the car’s loud speaker, asking which one was Austin. His mother raised the excited boy’s hand and the police began to yell happy birthday over the loud speaker.
Five police cars rolled in and the officers came out to meet the kids.
Austin received a personal tour of a police cruiser, and was permitted to turn on the siren and see the computer and all of the police gear.
Then the RCMP members let all the kids talk over the loud speakers and go into the cars, including all the kids “cramming” into the back seat of a cruiser.
“It was wonderful. They were so excited.”
It was a celebration, for one young boy, that will be remembered forever.
kevin.mills@missioncityrecord.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
