A South Okanagan mom took to social media over the weekend to invite the community to her son’s 10th birthday party.
This is because Jamie Pinko’s son Luthor More handed out several invitations to his friends, but the family received no RSVPs.
“I was a little nervous that we were going to have nobody show up,” said Pinko.
“So, I put out a little post on (the Facebook page) Osoyoos Connect and asked if anybody had any young kids that they wanted to bring down to the park, too. We had a slime theme. So, we had Jello and a slime-shaped cake and if anybody wanted to come and join us, they’re welcome to do so.”
The Facebook post struck a nerve with Osoyoos firefighter Katie Grant, who was participating in a weekend extrication training course along with other local firefighters.
“Osoyoos is a very tight-knit community and I’m a parent, and I have been that kid that had no one show up to my birthday party when I was young. You have that feeling and then you have the ability to make it better,” said Grant.
“It’s a feel-good thing to make any kid’s day and when a kid is by himself or lonely and we’re showing them that the community is actually going to rally around him, that’s a feel-good thing.”
Grant initially decided to attend with only a couple other firefighters. However, after the crew heard, one of the instructors decided to take a break early.
A crew of over 20 firefighters decided to pile in multiple fire trucks and go together to surprise Luthor at his birthday party.
“Through a bunch of conversations with the rest of us over here it was kind of interesting that all of a sudden everybody was all on board, like, ‘We got to do this,’” said Osoyoos Deputy Fire Chief Rob Huttema.
“We got to brighten somebody’s day up and not just brighten his day up but also brighten our days up.”
The crew pulled into the park blasting the siren and firefighters then lined up to high-five and fist-bump all the kids at the park.
Luthor received some swag from the department including a plastic fire hat, pencils, stickers and what he says is his favourite, an Eagle Bluff Wildfire t-shirt.
“At first it was just a regular normal birthday. Until we started hitting the piñata and then a whole bunch of random firefighters came and just said like ‘hello’ and like ‘happy birthday,’” said Luthor.
It was a moment that Luthor and his parents say they’ll never forget.
“I’m glad that something really super special happened for him because you can’t plan that, and you can’t buy that so for something that memorable to happen was really great for him on his 10th birthday,” said Luthor’s dad Michael More.
Gino’s Coffee House also showed up with snacks and a cowboy hat for Luthor. As well as, other community members and kids came out to celebrate.
Luthor even received cards from strangers wishing him a happy birthday.