Gavin Carter's mom had everything set up and ready to go for her son's sixth birthday extravaganza at the family's home in Navarre on Saturday afternoon — an inflatable water slide, cake, balloons, presents, the whole nine yards.

Around 20 families had RSVP'd for the event. The party was going to be extra special because Gavin's parents, Chandra and John, are both in the U.S. Air Force and were preparing to move to Colorado on Monday for a new station.

But as 3 p.m. came and went, only one family showed up and left, leaving Gavin devastated.

"Gavin didn’t have a lot of his friends come or anything, so my husband made a Facebook post about his frustration, because he didn’t want this to be Gavin’s last memory in Navarre," said Chandra Carter. “Within a matter of seconds of him posting, we had a ton of people respond."

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One of those people was David Higginbotham, whose 16-year-old son, Dawson, will be a junior this year and plays center on the Navarre Raiders’ football team. Higginbotham said he saw the post on Facebook and immediately jumped into action, rounding up as many players as he could to go to the Carters’ house.

“I kind of had a flashback, I remember when my wife and I just had Dawson, he was young, and the same thing happened to us. Nobody showed up to his birthday party,” Higginbotham said. “I remember that feeling. If I could do anything to keep anybody else from having that feeling, of course I would do it.”

Within about an hour, David and Dawson had rounded up six Raiders football players and headed to the Carters’ home. Higginbotham said more wanted to come, but weren’t able to on such short notice.

Chandra said around six other families with young children showed up as well.

Once there, the Raiders presented Gavin with a signed football and plenty of Raiders gear. They slid down the inflatable water slide with him, gave him presents and talked about football with him.

“They were just acting like kids,” Higginbotham said. “After the slide, they went over to the table and ate cake, so it was just them by themselves with Gavin talking about football and video games and what he wanted to do when he grew up.”

Chandra said Gavin was "beyond ecstatic" and "overwhelmed" about the experience.

“Not only did they come over, but they brought him presents,” she said. “I thought it was really awesome that they brought presents for a kid they didn’t even know. They came together and wanted to have a good time, which is what we were driving for.”

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Gavin woke up on Sunday morning and couldn’t stop talking about the football players who came to his birthday party, Chandra said.

On Monday, the Carters packed up and started their journey to Colorado. Chandra said the Raiders’ visit will make a lasting impression on her entire family.

“We could feel the closeness and tightness of the community,” Chandra said. “It has definitely left an imprint on our hearts and on this family. We’ll be talking about it for years.”

Annie Blanks can be reached at ablanks@pnj.com or 850-435-8632.