Longboat Key resident celebrates 95th birthday

For his 95th birthday on Aug. 4, Jimmy Loftis' friends aimed to surprise him. 

And surprise they did. From the time he returned from church that morning until well after lunchtime, Loftis was whisked into celebration after socially distanced celebration. First, longtime friend Eddie Tobin brought a piano keyboard up to Loftis' condo to play "Happy Birthday" before brunch and prosecco, then, friend June Sturges led Loftis back downstairs for his party. In the age of the coronavirus pandemic, it was naturally a drive-by party, led off by a procession of Longboat Key police and fire-rescue vehicles. 

"It's unbelievable!" Loftis exclaimed, thoroughly surprised. 

Then came the well-wishers. Throughout the morning, about 40 cars came through to hand out cards, balloons and gifts to Loftis. The goal was to get 95 birthday cards for the man, and longtime friend and surprise co-conspirator Larry Poole said they were pretty close to the goal. Poole's wife Patty filmed the whole thing to send to Loftis' family in Maryland. 

"We realized they couldn't get here and we landed on a couple options," Poole said. "We took a page out of the graduations we've seen with folks driving by."