"If she hears the truck outside and we don't have something to feed them with, she'll start to cry and say, 'We have to feed the blue trucks!'" Lena's mother, Leslie Riley, said. "We've gotten to know them very well."
When Lena awoke April 18, a day after her third birthday, she saw that sanitation workers had lined up seven trash trucks in front of her house to wish her well.
"My heart might explode from happiness today," Leslie Riley wrote on social media. "I didn't think Lena's birthday parade with decorated cars by so many of my amazing friends could be topped, but I was wrong. This morning we woke up to a visit from … SEVEN Republic Services trash trucks swinging by to wish my blue-truck-obsessed 3-year old a happy birthday."
“Times are hard right now, but the world is good (and) people are kind,” Leslie Riley’s post continued. "Maybe that’s why I can’t stop crying when I think about how awesome this surprise was.”
A family friend organized the trash truck parade. The blue trucks were festooned with flower decorations and signs wishing Lena a happy birthday. The workers also brought her coloring books, a hat and coffee mug.
"It's good to see a community coming together during a time like this," Leslie Riley told "Good Morning America". "It was just the sweetest. Every truck that came around the corner, (I had) more tears."
Our Las Vegas team was thrilled to make Lena's birthday extra special. https://t.co/IVOq0DoOSA
— Republic Services (@RepublicService) April 28, 2020
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