SALEM, Va. – The Shriners rallied dozens of people together on Sunday to throw a special birthday parade for a child in Salem.
The organization gave Charli Carpenter, who has been a part of the Shriner family for years, a drive-by parade for his 8th birthday.
“Charli’s just special to us, so we wanted to celebrate his birthday today,” said Potenentate of the Kazim Temple Ed Barker.
Like many other kids, his birthday plans were canceled because of the coronavirus.
“He was a little upset that he couldn’t have a party, so I called our friends at the Shrine and asked them if they could put together a parade. And it turned into a humongous parade,” said Vanessa Carpenter, Charli’s mom.
Charli knew something was planned, but he had no idea that clowns, pirate ships, fire trucks, dozens of friends and others were going to show up to his house.
Among the dozens of people who came to help, there were Shriners from Southwest Virginia, Salem and Vinton who wanted to celebrate this young boy.
“Most everyone in Kazim Shrine knows Charli and all it really took was just to reach out to the parade units and say ’Hey, we’d like for you to come to Salem tomorrow,’” said Barker.
The parade certainly brought a smile to Charli’s face and his family said the parade was the best birthday celebration ever.
With the success of this parade, the Shriners are looking into possibly throwing parades for their Shrine kids in the future.