Community comes together to celebrate 5-year-old girl's birthday with car parade

ELGIN, Ill. -- Normally Olivia Grace Williamson of Elgin, Illinois celebrates her birthday in her preschool classroom. She gets to wear a crown and her older brother comes in and reads a book to her class.

However this year - on her fifth birthday - Olivia got her own personal parade.

Her mother, Jennifer Williamson, is a fifth-grade teacher. She said she decided to put out a message on her neighborhood Facebook group to see if anyone was available to drive by their house to wish Olivia Grace a happy birthday.

Williamson said she was shocked to count about 64 jam-packed vehicles drive by that day.

She said everyone participated, since both moms and dads are working from home right now.

"It was a constant flow of traffic for 30 minutes, it never stopped," said Williamson. "It was so cute."

Olivia Grace has two older brothers, so even members of their baseball and football teams came out to support too.

"People opened their doors so that way we could see them, they would sing happy birthday, and they would keep going," said Williamson.

Williamson said Olivia Grace doesn't fully understand the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic but she was clearly delighted to have a parade in her honor.

"It was great feeling to see people come together, and to know as a family we can do this together," Williamson said. "It's not easy."