GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Every child should get the opportunity to fully experience Halloween.
Grand Rapids community members are coming together to make sure that will happen for current and former pediatric patients of Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital.
The group of 75 volunteers calls themselves 'Halloween Heroes', and is made up of workers from Owen-Ames-Kimball Co., Grand Valley State University engineering students and physical and speech therapists from Mary Free Bed.
"This is our third straight year for Halloween Heroes," said Jane Weatherford, who organizes the build. "The first year we built 9 costumes, then last year we did 18."
This year, the group has a grand total of 27 wheelchair costumes to create, so the event is growing exponentially.
"We started doing this because we wanted kids in wheelchairs to have a choice," said Weatherford. "Kids that are in power or wheelchairs don't get to have a lot of choices for what they want to do or where they want to go, so it's very important to us that the kids choose their costumes."
Once each child decides the costume they want, the build begins.
"We have a child that wants to be a bath tub this year and another child who wants to be an Army tank," added Weatherford. "The costumes van literally be anything."
All 27 costumes will be worn by each kid on Saturday, October 27th when Mary Free Bed hosts the Halloween Heroes Parade, which will start at the main entrance of Mary Free Bed at 3:00 p.m. and will travel down Jefferson Ave., weather permitting.
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