Prairie Disposal throws birthday drive-by parade for two-year-old fan

A local sanitation company delivered a surprise birthday parade for a Grande Prairie toddler, who is a big fan of the weekly visit from the garbage truck.

This past Friday was the birthday of two-year-old Pádraig Wilmod. A couple weeks ago, his mother was speaking with their neighbor, Ken Gripich, where they got to talking about Pádraig’s birthday.

Gripich says they started talking about how Pádraig was a big fan of seeing the garbage truck come by for its weekly pickup

“She told me that each week when the garbage truck comes, they wait before he goes to daycare so that he could see the garbage truck come, pick up the garbage can (and) dump it, and he thinks it’s really cool,” explained Gripich. “The guy that drives (the truck) gives him a big wave and says hi and a good morning.”

Gripich then had the idea to try to do something special for Pádraig’s birthday.

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“I thought, wouldn’t that be cool if I could get a garbage truck to come by and give him a honk and a hoot on his birthday?”

“I got talking over with my wife and she thought it was a great idea. My wife made the call and talked to Bart over at Prairie Disposal and he said, ‘A truck? Well how about if I get you half a dozen trucks?’ As it turned out it was eight (garbage trucks) and a couple of pick-up trucks.”

The plan was for Prairie Disposal to grab a convoy of trucks and meet up a block or so away at 12:30 p.m. to gather them up.

The convoy would then drive past Pádraig’s daycare that afternoon, which is located next door to Pádraig’s house.

There was one catch to the parade however: the kids didn’t know the parade was happening whcih was a very pleasant surprise for them.

“Spot on the money at exactly 12:30 they (the garbage truck drivers) come peeling around the cul-de-sac and the kids just went crazy! They were excited, running around and it was wicked. They paused one at a time to wave and I gave them a chocolate chip cookie as a thank-you for doing this. It was a massive deal and a great day.”

Wilmod was also gifted with a hat from Prairie Disposal as a birthday gift, even though Wilmod wasn’t a fan of putting it on right away as the video shows.

For their time, Gripich says he really wants to thank Prairie Disposal for their generosity.

“There was really no reward for them. It was extra time and extra effort and they certainly didn’t have to do it, but they did it and it made that little boy and all his friends really happy.”