Mishawaka girl gets surprise birthday parade

MISHAWAKA, Ind.--- A Mishawaka 4 year old was given a surprise birthday parade on Saturday. 4 year old Riley was met by dozens of police officers, bikers and well wishers for her special day.

Riley has already gone through a lot this year. "Riley lost her dad four weeks ago, and the Monday after we buried him, that’s when the stay at home order came," said Lynnette Alexander, Riley's grandmother.

The stay at home order meant no birthday party with family and friends. "So we not only had to tell her, her dad’s gone, she can’t go out and she goes 'What about my birthday?' and we said 'Honey you can’t have a party,' and she started crying."

After seeing other birthday parades in the area, Alexander decided to take to social media to try and get Riley a parade of her own.

"I talked to my daughter and said 'Hey let’s get a parade together for Riley,' and she said okay, so we put a post out to see if anyone would be interested," said Alexander.

That single post led to dozens people coming out to celebrate Riley's birthday. "People in the community around South Bend and Mishawaka, it just went kind of crazy on Facebook and everybody got together to show her some love," said Heather Young, a participant in the parade.

While the parade passed by her house, waving and leaving gifts, Riley waved back, smiling from ear to ear. "I’m just ecstatic, I would do anything for my kids and grandkids, I don’t know what I’d do without the help of everybody else," said Alexander.