• Community Spirit: Wyatt's Birthday Parade

Did you hear about little Wyatt's birthday parade?

Isabel Andino, Richard Deskin and Wyatt are ready for the SoCal Jeeps Club parade. 

With all this Covid19 sheltering in place, this young man was about to have his 4th birthday go by without any fanfare... until the community got wind of it that is. 

I wasn't able to get out to cover it (self isolation and all that), so I asked local Wildomartini (or Wildomartian if you prefer), Richard Deskin, if he'd mind putting together a few paragraphs to go along with the photos he'd taken. Much to my delight, I received a first hand account from Wyatt's mom, Shonna Goettman.

In Shonna's words

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On March 25th, I posted on a mommy group that has Moms from all over the country in it. I said that my son's 4th Birthday was coming up and was wondering if some moms would be up for having their kids draw Happy Birthday pictures, and mail them to me so I could put a book together for my son.  

One mom suggested reaching out to a city member as in her area the fire department and or police would drive by a child's house on their birthday, run their sirens and wish them a Happy Birthday. 

Wyatt and Spidey ready for action.

So I reached out to Bridgette Moore and ask her if she knew about anything like that. She said she would look into it and get back with me. After a couple days I saw she posted on Facebook asking the community what could be done for a child who is having a birthday but can't have a party during this time. 

So many people commented about doing a birthday Parade by the child's house. Isabel Andino and Richard Deskin took charge. Richard asked about the neighborhood and if it would be okay to have eleven Jeeps drive by the house for Wyatt's birthday. I said, "Yes".

SoCal Jeeps Club staging around the corner for the parade.

After that I saw so many supportive people commenting that they loved the idea of the birthday parade and or the hunt they wanted to be involved. Those that couldn't commented and wished my son a happy birthday.

Posing among the birthday decorations.

On April 5th, my husband and I got our children up and dressed, which cause them to be very suspicious considering we spent a lot of quarantine days lounging around in pajamas since we have nowhere to go.

My children have taken two walks in our neighborhood and played out in the front yard twice in the last month, those are the only four times my children have stepped foot out the front door in a month. 

Eleven Jeeps in a row? A sight to behold.☺

The kids were so excited to see the signs in the front yard that wished my son a happy birthday, we took some pictures in front of it and the kids got on their scooters and wrote up and down for a little while until I got a call that the birthday parade was coming down our street. 

I'm guessing that the Pterodactyl's name is Pterry.

We gathered the kids together and I held my littlest son whose birthday it was, 2 cars pulled up in front of our house and out of one of the cars popped a pterodactyl, the pterodactyl dance to a birthday song  and then waved to the rest of the cars to proceed down the street. 

Isabel Andino at the ready with the disinfectant spray.

We watched car after car, and Jeep after Jeep drive past with signs on their cars that wished Wyatt a happy birthday, and so many people saying "Happy Birthday Wyatt!"

Looks like the neighbor across the street was getting into the festive spirit too. 

Wyatt's Favorite things right now are Dinosaurs and Spiderman, there were several Jeeps that had the Jurassic Park logo on them, a couple of them had toy dinosaurs in their cars what the head sticking out, Wyatt thought that was fun.... but the highlight of the parade seemed to be Spiderman hanging from the side of one of the Jeeps and waving. 

Great license plate too.

Every single time he saw Spider-Man drive his mind exploded. As my husband and I watched all these people drive by just to bring joy to our son's day we teared up watching Wyatt get so much love and having so much fun. 

This Jeep is being protected by an N95 mask.

As if the parade wasn't enough, several gifts were left on our sidewalk, a stuffed Dinosaur, homemade quilt, books, an explorer set, cards, Money and much more was left for Wyatt. 

One of my favorite things was the large card made and signed by so many participants of the parade. Wyatt may not have had a normal or traditional birthday party but this is a birthday we will NEVER forget! 

Thank you so much to Richard, Isabel, and SoCal Jeeps Club! We truly can not tell you all how much this meant to us!

Wildomar Rap opinion time

We are very blessed to have such a good and caring community. If you're new to the area, or haven't participated in community events up to this point, I invite you to the next city park event... which, I imagine will happen again this Summer.