Merrittonian Deb Tancsa is organizing “Party Parades” to help anyone 16 years and younger celebrate their birthdays while maintaining social distancing.
Tancsa first heard of the idea from her sister, who took part in a parade in West Kelowna. Tancsa thought that this show of solidarity and celebration was exactly what Merritt needed in the tense time of the covid-19 outbreak.
“So, on Friday night I decided to create a Facebook group and hopefully gain the community’s interest,” Tancsa said.
“And wow, have I ever. 319 members as of Monday and lots of requests for Party Parades coming in.”
Tancsa hopes that the parades will make children feel as though their birthdays are still special, and that they can still be a day of joy and excitement, even in the time of a global pandemic.
“The whole idea is to practise social distancing, but still help make a child’s birthday special,” Tancsa explained.
“They have had to cancel birthday parties and get-togethers, so we decorate our vehicles and bring a party parade by their house.”
The first two birthday party parades took place on Sunday, March 29. Lisa Stager’s daughter Breanna James celebrated her sweet sixteen, and Lynn Aubin’s daughter Angélique turned three.
“My dad told me and my siblings to get ready,” James said.
“After that we went outside to go play. We played tag a little bit and then all of a sudden, we start hearing horns honking, I looked up and there was a whole bunch of people, it was the parade. It was really heartwarming, I kind of cried.”
After the parade, Stager, who had planned a surprise party for her daughter that had to be postponed due to rules regarding social distancing, drove her daughter through town and to Tim Horton’s for a celebratory donut.
“We drove around through town and we put up a sign on the back of the truck saying, ‘Honk it’s my Sweet Sixteen’ and we just drove around through Merritt, and people were honking at us with the decorations on the car still,” explained Stager.
“Tim Hortons gave her a pink donut and then we went up to the viewpoint and we started hand drum singing, singing for Breanna and singing for Merritt to get through this coronavirus.”
Lynn Aubin was similarly touched to have her daughter’s birthday celebrated.
“It’s wonderful to see how the community came together,” said Aubin.
“With short notice, people decorated their cars with balloons, streamers and signs. Some people had noisemakers, honked or yelled Happy Birthday out the window. We all had an excellent time. Our family in BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan were able to watch the parade via Zoom video conference. It was great that everyone could join in.”
Tancsa has already received requests for 12 more party parades in April, with more surely to come in. Parades take place at 4p.m. on weekdays and 2p.m. on weekends. If you would like to join in, you can find the group “Merritt Party Parades” on Facebook, and find future parades under the page’s “Events” section.
