According to Alicia Blaylock, four sheriff cars turned up at her apartment complex on Easter Sunday, loudly addressing her family while they rolled through her neighborhood at a safe distance. They were followed shortly afterward by Spiderman.
Although the entire scenario lasted less than 10 minutes, it was enough time for Blaylock’s son DJ to hear the short parade of visitors sing him the “Happy Birthday” song as they rolled through the street from the safety of their cars.
“My son wanted to go to Legoland for his birthday and we’d been saving for months to go and then everything closed with COVID-19. I’d been seeing on Facebook how there were people doing drive-bys so I threw the request out there,” Blaylock said.
A friend of the family, Lisa Rundle, asked the Alpine Sheriff and the Alpine Fire Protection District if it would be possible to make a birthday surprise happen.
“They zoomed in, four cars, lights flashing, it was a lot of fun. I’m so grateful to our law enforcement for doing this, especially for the kids,” Rundle said.
Alpine Sheriff Sergeant Katra said since the pandemic started, they have received several requests for a drive-by since families can’t hold large gatherings or birthday parties.
“They ask if we can drive by with our lights and sirens. We’ll get on our loudspeaker and sing “Happy Birthday” as we’re approaching, then we have a goodie bag with stickers and pencils for the kids,” Katra said.
He suspects that social media is fueling the idea and says the practice is just beginning to hit Alpine.
“We try to coordinate with the families; we can’t promise anything due to emergency calls but we’ll try to accommodate it for the kids. In Alpine, we have three to five cars and if everyone is available, we’ll run all of them. We try to have as many as possible,” Katra said.
Although the Fire Department was unable to add the event to their calendar, Spiderman was able to attend as well as a handful of cars filled with local friends wearing masks and holding up signs with happy messages for DJ.
Blaylock said seeing people come out from the community was really positive.
“I was super stoked that the sheriffs came. My son already struggles with low self-esteem. So we couldn’t do Legoland but seeing people come out from the community and show up just for him was really special,” Blaylock said.
Spiderman turned up as the final surprise of the birthday parade, strolling down the street and asking for DJ, and after asking permission to come closer than six feet, presented him with a bag of stickers, coloring book and crayons, and other small items from the masked superhero.
In a follow up call, Foundation 4 Heroes volunteer Donovan Crake said the non-profit organization has seen many of the events where their Superheroes were scheduled to appear canceled due to COVID concerns, including a large event at Rady Children’s Hospital.
“With all the negativity out there, it’s important to reach out with the positive, especially to younger children. Kids idolize heroes and obviously we’re not the real deal but in a kid’s world, a visit from their favorite Superhero can brighten up their day. I love doing what we do,” Crake said.
Blaylock said DJ later claimed it was the best birthday, ever.
