Spokane Valley firefighters grant fifth-grader’s birthday wish

A young boy delivered a handwritten birthday invitation to Spokane Valley firefighters, and they didn’t let him down.

As Mason Allen ate a celebratory lunch with his family Saturday at the Denny’s restaurant on Pines Road, two shiny red trucks pulled into the parking lot. Then three firefighters walked in and told a waitress, “We’re looking for Mason.”

In a video that has gone viral on Facebook, Mason, a fifth-grader at Bemiss Elementary School, grins as he climbs into the driver’s seat of a ladder truck and shakes hands with the firefighters from Station 8.

Before they circle around a corner booth in the restaurant to sing “Happy Birthday,” Mason tells them, politely, “Thank you for coming.”

A day before, Mason and his mother had visited the fire station to deliver his invitation.

He turns 11 this week and had hoped for a lively party. His mother, Danielle Thomas, said she had sent out a dozen invitations, but only one friend came.

Mason is on the autism spectrum and recently completed a nine-month treatment program in Lakewood, Washington, Thomas said.

“He just doesn’t relate to children his age,” she said.

But Mason did remember a time, months ago, when he met some firefighters in Lakewood. He was fascinated by their trucks and equipment, and they happily gave him a tour of the station there, Thomas said.

“The firefighters told me they’ll always be my friends,” Mason told his mother last week. “Can we invite them?”

Thomas doubted the firefighters would come.

And when the trucks pulled into the parking lot, she assumed it was a coincidence and the firefighters were just grabbing lunch.

“I think the coolest thing about it was how small of a thing it probably was to them, while it was huge to us,” she said.

Mason has twin brothers and an older sister. Despite his developmental delays, his mother said he’s “off-the-charts intelligent.” He loves math, science, soccer and Legos, and he’s been communicating better since completing the treatment program in September.

“I want to be a country singer, but my mom says I’m going to be an engineer,” Mason said Monday evening, wearing a Spokane Valley Fire Department sticker on his T-shirt.