The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the City of Calgary in many ways, but it has also led the way for new programs that have brought the community together in a time of need.
One initiative that has brought a smile to almost 9,000 faces over the last two months is the Calgary Fire Department’s drive-by birthday program.
During the pandemic closures, Calgary firefighters sought to help those in isolation celebrate their birthday by visiting residents on their special day — now the department is looking to extend the program past the pandemic.
“From April 8 to May 31, we conducted 8,676 drive-by birthdays,” fire Chief Steve Dongworth said on Wednesday. “We completed our drive-by birthday program last Sunday and it was a very successful program with overwhelming support from the public and overwhelming support from our staff.
“We were thinking about how would we carry that forward?”
The initial drive-by program was slated to end on May 31, but Dongworth said the team wasn’t ready to give up on the idea altogether. Now the department is launching an extension of its original initiative, the “100th Birthday Surprise.”
“Although it was great to see young people overjoyed at having something different happen on their birthday, it was really profound, the impact we’ve had on some of the elderly people who celebrated birthdays,” Dongworth said.
“We’ve had a number of birthdays of people who were over 100 years old, and those people were very moved and very emotional that we would come and do this for them.”
The new program will be available to all Calgarians celebrating their centennial birthday.
“Currently we will drive-by because of the restrictions,” he said. “But we hope to mature that program to where we would meet with that person, wherever they are.
“We’ll celebrate that birthday with them and recognize what a life they’ve had — because seeing a hundred years of history is a remarkable thing.”
Residents can request the service by contacting 311.
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