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Ryan “The Dude” Weimer is a proud father of five and the founder of Magic Wheelchair, a nonprofit organization that makes Halloween costumes for children in wheelchairs to rock out in.
Source: Magic Wheelchair
Weimer first came up with this idea when his son Keaton, one of his three sons diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), said he wanted to be a pirate for Halloween. Thinking since all pirates need a pirate ship, why not make him a stellar costume by building a pirate ship around his wheelchair?
Source: Magic Wheelchair
So now each year, Magic Wheelchair selects kids with great imaginations to be creators of their own Halloween costumes.
This is what Weimer said of letting the kids take the reins of the design: “Ultimately, creating each costume provides an awesome experience: taking something from Keaton’s imagination and seeing it realized as we hit the streets with our kids leading the way. People are amazed and it is a great opportunity for us to let people know about SMA and MD (Muscular Dystrophy).”
Source: Magic Wheelchair
Costing anywhere between $2000 to $4000, the average costume is said to take over 120 hours to make.
But for the families whose kids are creating their very own custom costumes, the costumes come at absolutely no cost. All the children need is their imagination, which no doubt they have an abundance of.
Source: Magic Wheelchair
Magic Wheelchair writes on their website that there are over 121,000 children under the age of 15 confined to wheelchairs.
But with the help of the vast creativity of children, we hope custom costumes will one day be available for all differently-abled children on Halloween.
We’ll leave off with the words of Weimar, told to BuzzFeed News: “It’s not a cure. I wish I was smart enough to come up with something like that. It’s a cure for a day. It helps them forget. It helps other people see them as kids, and not just a kid in a wheelchair.”