Gwynedd Mercy’s Palazzo gets birthday surprise from teammates, friends

LOWER GWYNEDD >> Thanks to a little help from her friends and teammates, Peyton Palazzo managed to have a pretty good birthday weekend.

Palazzo, a senior on Gwynedd Mercy Academy’s girls’ lacrosse team, had planned on her 18th birthday Sunday bridging a gap between the school’s senior prom and the Monarchs’ season-opener that had been scheduled for Monday. Thanks to the COVID-19 coronavirus, the prom was postponed while Palazzo and her teammates haven’t seen each other in weeks.

That changed Sunday afternoon when about a dozen cars surprised Palazzo outside her house for an impromptu birthday celebration.

“I was very surprised,” Palazzo, who also played soccer at GMA, said. “I thought it was just going to be my boyfriend then I heard all the honking and I was caught a little off-guard.”

Palazzo’s grandmother, Gloria Anderson, got the idea after seeing something similar on the news over the weekend. She asked Palazzo’s boyfriend Giacomo Ward, a senior at La Salle College High School, and Carrie Johnston, Palazzo’s lacrosse teammate, to see what they could put together.

It didn’t take them long for things to come together.

“Peyton’s grandmom called me and told me Peyton had been pretty bummed with her birthday coming during this quarantine,” Johnston, also a senior at Gwynedd Mercy Academy, said. “It was supposed to be a fun weekend with our prom this weekend but it kind of got ruined. I started texting all our friends and I think within five minutes we got it all together.”

Johnston, a Drexel recruit, Palazzo and the rest of their lacrosse teammates were supposed to open their season at home against Bishop Shanahan on Monday afternoon. They haven’t given up on salvaging at least some of their season but for now, settled on giving their teammate a welcomed surprise.

With balloons and banners adorning most of the cars, the ensemble lured Palazzo out with a symphony of honking horns.

“My mom made me change out of my pajamas, so I kind of knew something was up but I didn’t think it would be this,” Palazzo said. “It was so cool. Everyone had been telling me ‘have fun in quarantine,’ but seeing everyone here in their cars is crazy.

“This 100 percent makes up for it; this is one of my favorite birthdays for sure.”

Palazzo was extremely grateful that her friends took the time to try and lift her spirits on a weekend that had taken a lot away from all of them. The GMA senior said her family helped her make the most of her birthday weekend but she had really wanted to get out of the house and got the perfect reason on Sunday.

“Some of them don’t even live close to here but they made the drive over which was really, really special,” Palazzo said. “It was really nice my friends came together to do this for me.”