Kennewick 6-year-old celebrates with drive-by birthday party

The sound of horns blaring and people shouting could be heard as cars gathered on South Osbourne Street in Kennewick.

But this was not a typical traffic jam nor people overcome with road rage, it was a birthday parade for Rocco Russell who was turning 6 years old on Tuesday.

In the time of coronavirus, people are coming up with innovative ways to celebrate milestones while maintaining a safe social distance and birthday parades in particular have become a social media sensation.

Instead of having a party, Rocco’s mother, Rachel Russell, created a private Facebook event and invited friends and family to drive by and wave to Rocco on his birthday.

For an hour people streamed by the Russell’s home in cars decorated with banners and painted with ‘Happy birthday, Rocco!’ as Rocco and his family waved from the driveway.

“I think he’s most excited to see his teacher, he really misses his teacher,” said Garrick Russell, Rocco’s father. “What a great chance to see his friends who he hasn’t seen in a couple of weeks, his school classmates, his buddies and our family too.”

In addition to the parade, the family has received phone calls, text messages and present drop-offs to celebrate Rocco’s birthday. Social media has made it easier for the family to share moments and memories with family and friends who couldn’t be there for the parade.

“What a cool thing to look back at 10 or 20 years from now,” Garrick said.

If the coronavirus threat wanes in the coming weeks, the Russell family hopes to have an in-person celebration in the summer. In the meantime, they are just glad the parade was able to happen.

“We just want to say ‘thank you’ to all of our family and friends for being supportive of our decision to do this parade instead of having a party,” Rachel said.