Red Deer Cruise Night is offering drive-by cruises for area residents celebrating a special occasion during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Christina Smith - Dreamy Skies Photography)

By Sheldon Spackman

Drive-By-Cruising

Red Deer Cruise Night rolls on with drive-by parades

May 5, 2020 | 4:54 PM

A local group of classic car enthusiasts have established a new way of sharing their hobbies and labours of love with the public.

For the past two weeks, Red Deer Cruise Night has been hosting drive-by cruises for anyone in the area celebrating a birthday, anniversary, special occasion, or even honouring the loss of a loved one with a memorial cruise.

CEO Dave Burden acknowledges they had to come up with some way to get together and share their passions while adhering to physical distancing and other current health protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This doesn’t necessarily only mean hotrods, this is anybody that would like to come and say Happy Birthday, or Congratulations, or whatever the cruise may be,” he explains. “So if you’ve got just a regular minivan and you want to come in to the drive, feel free!”

Burden says they’ve received a lot of positive responses from their efforts so far.

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“The people are loving us being able to come out and see them, since they can’t come and see us,” says Burden. “We do have quite a few plans, we’ve done I think about 15 already. You’d have to check our Cruise Night page – our calendar to actually see the times and dates available.”

Burden says he’s grateful for all the community support their cruises receive.

“We’re not looking to cause any issues, we’re making sure our social distancing is in effect,” adds Burden. “We’ve done it for as young as a couple years-old, and we just did one for a gentleman the other day, I think it was his 75^th birthday. Right now, we’ve got between 15 and 30 (vehicles taking part), depending on the day, going out on cruises.”

Burden anticipates those numbers to grow even more once all the sand and gravel is removed from city streets.

“There is no charge for this,” says Burden. “Of course, donations are always welcome because every birthday cruise that we do, we do drop-off a small present for them. So donations would obviously be appreciated, but not necessary!”

For Red Deer and area residents interested in arranging a drive-by cruise for their special occasion, visit dreamyskies.ca.

by Sheldon Spackman

Red Deer Cruise Night rolls on with drive-by parades

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