Cochrane's very own Jeep club took the community by storm last year when members started doing drive-by birthday parades.

There were so many unknowns at the start of the pandemic, in the spring of 2020, and the Cochrane Jeepers made sure that people who were having a birthday felt special with their very own parade.

It became so popular that they ended up doing more than 230 parades!

Sarah Kemp de Gereda with the Cochrane Jeepers says they're going to be kicking off their birthday parades again next month. "We are going to start back up again on April 5. So we will be available for birthday parades on both Tuesdays and Thursdays."

It varies each night but she says they usually have between 10 to 15 Jeeps turnout for each parade. 

Kemp de Gereda says the club has grown a lot over the last year. "I think we've got over 300 people that are part of the group right now and we do have people from Cochrane, there's people that come out from Calgary and some other areas, but we do have a real core here in Cochrane."

They didn't just do birthday parades last year. 

"We did a massive parade that we coordinated for a little boy at the children's hospital and we had just under 100 vehicles between Jeeps, motorcycles and trucks, and that was a really special event that we were participating in. We also did the Canada Day Parade. So we spent a couple hours driving through all the neighbourhoods with the princesses, and the Marvel characters. We also did the Filipino Independence Day parade here in town and we did do the long-term care facilities parades as well."

They held a Mother's Day food bank fundraiser as well in 2020. 

The parades bring smiles to people from all generations. 

"It's really for all ages, we've done for really young kids up to I think we had somebody celebrating in their 90s on one of the parades, so it's really for everybody."

The best part about this all is the Cochrane Jeepers do these parades just because they want to spread some joy in our community. 

"We don't ask for any funds, we just do this because we love to see the smiles and really be part of the community spirit here in Cochrane."

To find out more information and to book a birthday parade you can contact the Cochrane Jeepers through their Facebook page.

Cochrane Jeepers