Friends surprise boy with drive-by birthday parade, social distancing style

There was no pin-the-tail-on donkey or blowing out candles with friends, but Cam MacIsaac's seventh birthday will still be one to remember.

Because of COVID19 and social distancing, the P.E.I. boy couldn't have a conventional birthday party on Sunday. But that didn't mean nobody showed up to sing Happy Birthday.

A parade of about 20 cars drove past Cam's house in Winsloe, full of people singing and waving homemade signs.

"He went to bed a pretty happy boy," said his mother, Meredith Cameron MacIsaac.

MacIsaac, a school teacher in Stratford, said the idea came from her friend who posted on her Facebook page. It quickly gathered steam.

"My other friends kind of chimed in and said, 'We're free, what time?,'" MacIsaac said.

"I was hesitant at first knowing that Cam's a little bit shy, and he doesn't like to be singled out but I thought why not, we need to make all the connections we can right now."

MacIsaac said Cam understood he couldn't have friends over, so they had planned a small family gathering with cake and a few presents.

You couldn't wipe the smile off his face. Meredith Cameron MacIsaac

She knew the cars would start arriving around 3:30, so they went outside "to play."

"We didn't tell our son right away, we didn't want to give him any time to back out."

His Grade 1 teacher was the first in line, followed by carloads of friends.

"They all had made signs and cards throughout the day, they were hanging them out the window, they were singing Happy Birthday to him," MacIsaac said.

"He was pretty overwhelmed at first but by the end of it he was throwing out the word epic. You couldn't wipe the smile off his face."

MacIsaac said it's nice to see people being so creative in this time of self-isolation and social distancing.

"It was crazy the amount of effort and work the families went into throughout the day to make their two-minute drive-by a memorable one," said.

"We weren't all sitting around the table blowing out his candles with his friends, opening presents, we weren't playing those games that you normally do but I think this will go down as one of the most memorable birthdays he'll have."

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