The Guelph Kids Social Distancing Birthday Party showed up on Facebook on a whim a few weeks ago as a way to cheer up some physically isolated children with a drive-by birthday party.
"We wondered if we'd even get enough people to do them," said Jennifer Drexler, one of the driving forces behind the Facebook group.
Since then the group, which provides horn-honking, car-decorated, gift-dropping, dinosaur-costume-wearing drive-bys for birthdays, has visited almost 400 people, with over another 100 already booked.
The Facebook group has over 1,500 members and on busy days they'll do 20 drive-bys. They've even started taking Tuesdays and Thursdays off to give the regular group of 20 or so drivers a break.
On Wednesday they expanded their horizons, making a drive-by and drop-off at The Bench, the 'better small than not at all' social enterprise on Wyndham Street run by Ed Pickersgill.
It was facilitated by The Bench supporter Annette Graydon, who is also part of the drive-by group.
The group distributes food, drinks, clothes, toiletries and micro-loans to anyone in need, no questions asked, from a bench located on the west side of the street beside a city parking lot.
Water, Gatorade, treats, granola bars, apples, sandwiches and various other snacks were delivered for distribution over the next few days.
"It's not actually a Bench birthday, but I'll take it," said an appreciative Pickersgill. "The bunch of people that do these drive-bys are an awesome crowd of people. What they brought is magic.
"It takes your breath away. There's good people in this town," he said.
Brianne Clarke of the drive-by group said that they have done 387 drive-bys to date, hitting up to 25 places on some weekends and nights.
"Our first one was on Good Friday. We had just one house to drive by," Drexler remembers of their humble beginnings.
"Then we got other people on board to help, expanded our routes and just kept getting bigger and bigger."
"We've had upwards of 35 cars, but we average 15 to 18," Clarke said. "The smiles everywhere is amazing."
Drexler said they get great feedback from those they visit at a distance, including one mom who recently posted about how their drive-by helped cheer up her son.
"It's important for the kids to realize that we're still thinking about them," Drexler said.
