That’s because moments earlier, reports had begun flooding in that someone had targeted the parade with a rifle, causing some participants to flee for their own safety.
As it turns out, things were far more simple and far, far less dangerous. But at that moment…
“I was actually thinking ‘we have to shut it down’ because if we’re actually getting targeted, there’s just no way,” Chell said. “It was just so sad because we’re just trying to make people happy… but it turned out wasn’t just us, we just happened to be driving by.”
The current parade structure sees two groups of around 40 cars each spreading out to hit between 40 and 50 homes throughout the city, offering the occasional horn honk and engine rev for folks celebrating their birthday. The event has become wildly anticipated, with young and old alike eagerly awaiting the procession of decorated cars and smiling faces.
But it was around 1:30 on Saturday afternoon that things took a dark turn. The first two parades had been completed and the group was gathering in the Town ’n’ Country Mall parking lot take part in the Jones driveby. It was right around then that members of the Next Gen Car Club suddenly bolted, leaving onlookers wondering what was going on.
“They were supposed to be part of the parade, then (Next Gen organizer) Austin (Murray) messaged me saying ‘we just had a gun pulled on us, we’re out of here’, and I just couldn’t believe it,” Chell said.
As Murray and his crew made their way to the police station to file a report, the Jones parade went on, with one heck of an unbelievably dark cloud overhead.
“I really thought that was going to be it,” she said.
But soon, the news improved, somewhat. The individual had allegedly been walking around with an airsoft rife – many of which are almost exact replicas of modern firearms – and pointing it at people, with the Birthday Parade just happening to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I mean, to point a gun at us?” Chell said incredulously. “You can see the trends now, too, when it comes to mental health. It’s not good, so this stuff isn’t shocking when we’ve been in isolation so long. But how do you wave a gun at a parade?”
Fortunately, time and sober second thought have led Chell and organizer to keep on keeping on, given the randomness of the event.
“I’ve talked to enough people — this was just a one off and people really want to see them continue, so we’ll keep going,” Chell said.
Get those birthdays in early, folks!
One ‘problem’ that has cropped up recently is people attempting to call or message in birthdays at the last minute.
With dozens of homes to hit across the city, the Birthday Parade takes plenty of planning, including the route that the two groups follow, and Chell has set a weekly deadline of Wednesday to give plenty of time to set up.
“We can keep adding to a certain extent as long as they’re on the route, but we actually had to say no to a few because we had the route planned and they were so far off the route I couldn’t get them in there without causing chaos for the whole thing,” Chell said.
“That’s why we have the booking in by Wednesday so we can plan, and I was getting messages right up until 11:30 on the day of the parade, if I could add some people since we were just driving around.”
The routes are actually planned turn by turn, though, taking about an hour and 15 minutes or so for each drive. That’s by design, to keep the loop fun and keep everyone interested from start to finish.
“That way no one gets bored, everyone has a great time,” Chell said.
To schedule a Birthday Parade drive by, check out the Moose Jaw Birthday Parade Facebook page and fill out the form linked at the top of the page.
