{"id":27220,"date":"2026-06-08T22:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T22:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/27220\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T22:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T22:18:10","slug":"cootamundra-community-turns-out-in-force-for-nates-10th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/27220\/","title":{"rendered":"Cootamundra community turns out in force for Nate’s 10th birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Sarah Tattam was planning her son’s 10th birthday, she was nervous about how it would go.<\/p>\n

“We were on the drive to school and talking about a birthday party,” she said.<\/p>\n

“[Nate] was sitting there in the back seat and said no-one would come.”<\/p>\n

Nate Tattam lives with his mother, sisters Angelina and Jordan, and their grandmother in Cootamundra in southern New South Wales.<\/p>\n

He also lives with ADHD, autism, some intellectual disabilities and a speech and language delay, which have made it difficult for him to make friends.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Cootamundra-based emergency service personnel joined in the celebrations. (Supplied: Facebook\/NSW Rural Fire Service)<\/p>\n

“He might play a certain game of cricket with kids at school [and] he sees it as, ‘Because I play with them, they’re my friends,'” Ms Tattam said.<\/p>\n

“But in an actual social setting, you take school away and that’s not how it works in the real world.”<\/p>\n

Ms Tattam posted to a Facebook page to ask the community to help make her boy’s birthday special.<\/p>\n

“He loves anything that’s got a motor and wheels. He’s been obsessed since he was little,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I just put up a post just asking if anybody’s got a truck, a motorbike, if people could just drive past, spare a minute and beep their horn, wish him a happy birthday.”<\/p>\n

Soon, Ms Tattam was fielding phone calls from community organisations, including the captain of the local fire brigade.<\/p>\n

\"Children,<\/p>\n

Truck drivers also joined in the festivities. (Supplied: Sarah Tattam)<\/p>\n

“We ended up with three fire trucks, two ambulances and a police car here on Saturday afternoon for him,” she said.<\/p>\n

“They came around the corner with lights and sirens for him, he got to play in the trucks and with the hoses and go in the back of the [police] wagon, which is pretty good because he wasn’t doing anything bad.”<\/p>\n

Nate said he was happy so many people turned up for his birthday.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nate Tattam was given a racing shirt by a residents who attended his impromptu party. (Supplied: Sarah Tattam)<\/p>\n

Ms Tattam said she was touched by the community support.<\/p>\n

“It made me cry,” she said.<\/p>\n

The following day, his actual birthday, Nate got a visit from Matthew Thacker and his sprint car.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Members of the Black Dog Ride from nearby Young made the 40-minute journey, along with the Wandering Wedgetails, to bring some motorbikes to the party.<\/p>\n

A restoration club brought some classic cars along as well.<\/p>\n

“He was actually able to open doors and sit in cars and go for a ride. It was lovely,” Ms Tattam said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nate Tattam got to ride in a vintage car with his sisters. (Supplied: Sarah Tattam)<\/p>\n

More celebrations to come\u00a0<\/p>\n

About 50 people turned up across the two days, including residents who dropped in presents and children who wanted to play with the birthday boy.<\/p>\n

But the party is not over yet.<\/p>\n

“I’m going on a plane,” Nate said, looking forward to an aerial tour of the area that was donated as a present.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Black Dog Ride members helped to celebrate Nate Tattam’s birthday. (Supplied: Sarah Tattam)<\/p>\n

Ms Tattam said the whole experience had been empowering.<\/p>\n

“If this is what the community can do for a little 10-year-old boy, imagine what they’re capable of,” she said.<\/p>\n

Cootamundra Gundagai Mayor Abb McAlister said the family had recently arrived in the town.<\/p>\n

“I know they haven’t been in town long, but in these smaller towns, you don’t have to be,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You’re welcome pretty well straight away in Cootamundra and Gundagai.<\/p>\n

\u00a0“That’s just the way the community has always been.”<\/p>\n

Ms Tattam said in addition to having the best 10th birthday ever, Nate had another thing to get excited about.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He’s looking forward to a play date next week,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Sarah Tattam was planning her son’s 10th birthday, she was nervous about how it would go. “We…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3148,22,21,25162,1504,25163],"class_list":["post-27220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-adhd","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-autism","tag-goodnews","tag-making-friends-with-disabilities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}