Friday, June 5, 2020 3 Brooklin Town Crier Celebrating a birthday during Covid Our Brooklin Kids By Leanne Brown As we social distance during the pandemic, kids are dealing with disappointment over canceled trips, school events, sports seasons, graduations and more. For children celebrating their birthdays during this time, the absence of a birthday party surrounded by their friends is further heartbreak. But just because we have to stay home doesn't mean kids can't have amazing birthday celebrations. There are some easy ways to make a birthday special without the traditional party. Here are some favourites: Balloon surprise Nothing says a party like balloons. One way to really start off the day right is to create a balloon shower. Tape a sheet to the door frame and, between the sheet and door, fill it with balloons while they're sleeping. When they open their door in the morning, balloons fall on them, kicking the day off with a surprise. Lawn decorations Surprise the birthday girl or boy with a yard sign and other decorations so the whole neighbourhood knows it's their special day. Our neighbour did this and soon the whole street was dropping off little treats and homemade cards. Car parade Ask friends, neighbours, classmates, teammates and relatives to decorate their cars, make signs and drive by your house at a designated day and time. Set up chairs in the driveway and watch the parade. Participants can also drop off gifts and cards while you're at a safe distance. Video celebration Tween birthdays are all about celebrating with friends, so why not hold a Zoom birthday party? (This works for teens and adults, too) You can bake a cake and the birthday child can blow out the candles. Everyone sings happy birthday and maybe play charades or trivia or do a group TikTok. The only disappointment is that they can't share the cake. An aside: I wonder if blowing out candles is soon to become history. Scavenger hunt How about a sort of Easter egg hunt, only with birthday gifts? Family members send gifts via snail mail and you hide them around the house for your child to discover. Video message There are businesses that have actors & singers who dress up like princesses and superheroes for parties. Some do personalized videos and FaceTime calls for a small fee. If your son is into Batman or daughter has a favourite princess they can get to chat with them over video. Younger kids will love this! Special meals Why not make their favorite breakfast and get takeout from their favourite place? If they love going to a special restaurant, bring the experience home. It's sure to be a hit. Themed day When our Disney vacation got canceled, we put on our Disney shirts and mouse ears and ate Disney-themed food. We also had a Disney movie festival and watched Disney rides on You Tube on our big screen TV. You could do something similar with your own favourite theme. Slumber party So you can't have all your friends over. But you can do a family sleepover with sleeping bags in the living room with lots of pillows and blankets and all the typical fun. In the summer, if you have a tent you could have a backyard campout and make hotdogs and s'mores on the bbq. Kids are pretty resilient. The most important thing is to acknowledge their special day by showering them with love. That's certainly what they will remember. Prima Ballet Rescued By Richard Bercuson Brooklin's Prima Ballet, a fixture on Baldwin St. for eight years, came this close to shutting its doors last month. Perhaps even closer than that. But then a miracle of sorts fell into owner and director Angie Stone's lap. The family of one of her students was so upset at the thought of Prima closing that they offered to buy the business, thus rescuing it from almost certain closure. What's more, Stone's role as director and teacher will not change. The new owner's name is being withheld at their request. Even before COVID struck, it hadn't been a particularly good year for Prima. "Our Nutcracker production was the first hiccup," says Stone. "We normally did shows in schools, with a fraction of the full show. "We budget a year in advance and couldn't have predicted the school situation," she recalls. "We could have recovered the loss of shows over a year or so and it was doable. Then came COVID on Friday the 13th (of March)." She waited it out through April, giving online classes where feasible. The vast majority of clients were understanding; others were caught off -guard and were dealing with cutbacks themselves and had to cancel. "Through this sort of state of emergency," Stone says, "I pushed and pushed and pushed. I was at a point where we were in a downward spiral and sinking into an abyss of debt. "My biggest fear was what do I do next. I'll have trouble convincing my own child to continue to dance." Days after sending all parents an email about the pending closure, she was showing the unit to potential renters. Then she got a phone call. "The lady said she can't see this go, that the place means too much to too many people. She asked me what if she bought the business and I partnered up with her. She kept apologizing and saying she didn't want to appear like a vulture." With the school saved, Stone is now investigating how to sanitize the studio and make it safe for when classes larger than one or two are permitted. She's been doing one-on-one instruction through Zoom which most kids have enjoyed it. At least they keep dancing. She gives them a bit of homework along with dance and choreography challenges. Audio and video delays have been a bit of a challenge. Needing to learn to be much more descriptive with language in lieu of a tactile approach has been another. "I'm doing stuff to keep morale up. Theirs and mine. Basically I'm generating about 4% of what normally comes per month." Her mother, who was one of the school's teachers has decided to retire from that part of her teaching life though she will continue doing dance instruction for those with Parkinson's. With this experience, Stone has become even more of a staunch supporter of community businesses. "Every single business along Baldwin needs our support. Otherwise…" Photo courtesy of Debra of Durham Photo