ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Tara Bradbury
The Telegram
If you come to his birthday party today, Landon Taylor of St. John’s will greet you from a distance, doing "Fortnite" dances from behind a window."
He’s not sure yet which one of the video games moves he’ll do. "The Floss" is too overdone. "The Electro Shuffle"? Nah.
“I think maybe 'The Hype,'” Landon says, choosing the perfect fist-pumping, jumping, kicking dance move for a boy about to turn seven years old.
It’s probably not the joyful move you’d expect from a kid whose birthday party was called off.
“It was cancelled because of coronavirus,” Landon tells The Telegram. “I was pretty upset.”
His mom, Hope Taylor, had planned an especially big party this year at Axtion Climb, a favourite spot for kids, with bouncy castles, climbing activities and amusement park-style rides. Like most local businesses, Axtion was closed in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak and Landon’s party had to be cancelled.
“He was disappointed, definitely not very pleased about cancelling, but we decided to change things up a bit and have a drive-by party instead,” Hope says.
The family is inviting the public to Landon’s “drive-by birthday party” outside their home at 72 Blackwood Pl. in St. John’s, at 1 p.m. today. They plan to have the house decorated and are hoping people might decorate their cars, too, and wave happy birthday to Landon in the window.
Hope says they’ll have a container on the lawn to accept non-perishable food items, to be donated to the food bank.
“We know there are a lot of people struggling as it is, and even more now during this situation,” she explains. “We’re hoping this way we can make Landon’s birthday a good day for other people as well.”
Landon, a Grade 1 student at Rennie’s River Elementary school, wants you to know there’ll be loot bags for people to take.
“I want people to take all of them,” he says. “I think the party will probably be fun.”
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