WATCH: Long Island Car Group Brings Birthday Parades To Kids

BOHEMIA, NY — For Long Island children at home during the coronavirus pandemic, birthday celebrations aren't quite the same as they used to be. But one ad-hoc group of car enthusiasts found a way to brighten the celebrations of local families by driving a parade of exotic (and tame) cars by the homes of kids stuck at home on their big day.

Strong Island Car Parades 4 Kids was loosely organized when Mike LaRocca was asked by his friend Phil Colucci to visit his son, Nicolas, who had recently recovered from cancer, with cars from his car collection.

"I called in favors from my friends and fire departments and police. And there were about 150 cars. After the videos and pics from that went viral, the requests started coming in. So I started a group page from there it’s just gone nuts," he told Patch.

Now the group of volunteers are doing daily car parades for kids who are celebrating birthdays at home alone during the COVID-19 outbreak. This parade went through a Bohemia neighborhood on Saturday.

LaRocca estimates they have done up to 50 parades. The volunteer group is booked with up to five parades during the week and seven to ten each weekend day, he says.

The group has been contacted by special needs teachers and hospitals, all looking to boost the morale of their students and employees.

Parents who are interested in a parade contact the group through their Facebook page with the details of their request and the group tries their best to fulfill the requests.

"It’s a total pop up group with [everything from] $500k Ferraris to a guy with a beat-up minivan that he decorated," LaRocca said.

"This would not be possibly without all the participants and their families. The time the participants are spending and the time their families are allotting for the kids is unreal," he posted in the group.