'This is the best day of my entire life, ever': Saskatoon boy thrilled to meet city crew

A little boy from Saskatoon is still buzzing after he got to meet his heroes.

Tiffany Keyworth said her five-year-old son James is a big fan of the city crews that clear snow and sweep his street in Stonebridge.

She said it all started with an assignment to write a thank-you note to his grandfather back in March.

“He said, ‘I don’t want to do that, but I want to write to the graders – the snow removal crew – and write them a thank-you note.’ And so I said, ‘Sure;’ anything to get him to hold a pencil and show gratitude,” she said.

Keyworth said she actually had to do some persuading to get the city’s public works department to give out a mailing address.

“I don’t think they get a lot of fan mail, sadly,” she said.

Keyworth was eventually able to get her son’s first note to the city. That note to the graders was then followed by another one to the city’s street sweepers.

Keyworth said James was thrilled when he got a reply.

“They wrote back and sent some pictures of their equipment and we had to make copies of that because he wanted to sleep with it, and take it to school. So he’s carrying around all these colour copies of heavy machinery,” she said with a chuckle.

But the biggest surprise was yet to come. The city told Keyworth when a crew would be sweeping streets in front of James’ house.

She said her son was so excited he told all his friends and his teachers at school.

Keyworth said she and James took the opportunity to craft some signs for the windows of their house before the workers arrived last Friday.

“We just made some signs to say ‘thank-you’ and ‘good job’ and some cookies, and they actually stopped by on their break to visit him,” she said.

Along with hanging out and eating cookies, the city workers gave James a tour of their machines before presenting him with a t-shirt Keyworth said she may eventually have to pry off of him.

“He’s wearing it at school today — it’s down to his ankles,” she said.

Keyworth said she’s thankful for the workers who took the time to make her son’s day.

“He said, ‘This is the best day of my entire life, ever,’ and it really was, they were just wonderful. They kept driving by and honking and sweeping. It was really a joyful and gracious thing for them to do,” she said.