Collected Item: “Mario-themed, socially distanced birthday party”
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Mario-themed, socially distanced birthday party
What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?
photograph
Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.
Like so many other children, we were unable to have a birthday party for my son when he turned 5. The COVID numbers were rapidly rising in Tucson last August and it would just be too unsafe to have people together to celebrate. In order to still plan something special, I made a Mario-themed scavenger hunt around town for my son so he could still see some family and friends. I made a bunch of Toads and hid clues inside and made masks of different characters, such as Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Donkey Kong, etc. Starting at our house, the Toad on our front porch had a clue for my son, telling him that he had stolen his birthday present and to get it back he'd have to solve the clues. This led us from house to house, where my son would search for another Toad and another clue, while our family and friends pretended to be the different characters using the masks. Staying outside, they were all able to wish him happy birthday and hand off a birthday present. In the end, my son solved all the clues and Toad "returned" his birthday present back at our house, which was a Nintendo Switch (which was itself difficult to purchase at this time because there was such high demand with limited supply). While it wasn't a traditional birthday party, it ended up being a lot of fun and something that he still talks about. We were able to record clips of his different stops and put it together in a short video. The pandemic really made us have to rethink how we celebrate birthdays but in some cases it created unique experiences that were even more special.
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Arizona, Tucson, birthdays, kids, social-distancing, parties
Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)
Kelly Prevenas
Give this story a date.
2020-08-15