Family Celebrates Birthday With Pokemon Go Walking Party

Finding a creative and fun way to celebrate her son’s birthday while adhering to the COVID-19 stay-at-home order—that was the challenge facing Liz T., a sonographer at Aurora Medical Center – Kenosha, as the calendar inched toward her son Julien’s 9th birthday at the end of April. After reading a health e-news story about stay-at-home celebrations, Liz was inspired to organize a special walking event for her son using the popular Pokemon Go game as a theme.

 

Since the start of the stay-at-home order, the Truelove family has been playing Pokemon Go around their Libertyville, IL, neighborhood. The search-and-find game is a fun way for Liz, her husband Jeremy, and sons Julien and Jean-Luc to get outside, exercise and have fun together as a family. Playing the game and collecting the play cards became a favorite activity for Julien. “It was a fun way to make our evening walks more interesting and fun for the kids,” Liz said.

 

Liz got to work creating Pokemon-themed bags and PokeStop signs. She engaged the help of Julien’s classmates at Copeland Manor School and their parents, asking them to put the signs and goodie bags in their yards. On the big day, she surprised Julien with his own Pokemon Go adventure to seek and find bags filled with birthday loot. Along the way, school friends greeted him with happy birthday signs and sidewalk chalk messages. Some waved from windows or stood out on porches to say hello.

 

“Nine out of 10 of the families I asked agreed to participate,” said Liz. “Besides being a celebration for Julien, I thought it also would be a fun thing for our neighborhood families to do together. Julien was happy to see his classmates. It was really special for him.”