Every Kid Deserves a Costume
Brittany Strelluf
Every actor knows how exciting it can be to have a fantastic costume. It can take your performance and your character to a whole new level. It automatically brings up the quality of your production.
If you’re not an actor, think back to Halloween as a child, how excited you were to get dressed up and become a favorite hero or princess. Then after you grew up, you probably started to share Halloween with your own children, nieces, and nephews. Think about how special it is to see these kids excited to put on their costumes and get their candy.
Lon Davis believes that every child deserves that experience. That is how Walkin’ and Rollin’ Costumes came to be.
Walkin’ and Rollin’ Costumes is an organization that designs and builds custom costumes for children who require the assistance of walkers or wheelchairs to get around.
“My inspiration was my son, Reese. He was born with cancer 10 years ago. The cancer crushed his spinal cord and he now uses a walker or wheelchair to get around. He got his first wheelchair when he was 3 and wanted to be Wall-E for Halloween that year. I knew I couldn't buy a costume that would work for him, so I built one. Every year since then, we always build a costume together as a team. We have built about 10 costumes over the past 7 years for his chair. This year we decided to open it up to other families and help them out.”
Walkin’ and Rollin’ Costumes designs and creates these costumes and gives them to the families- completely free of charge.
“It's free to the families that receive the costumes. That's one of the things we knew going into this project.”
According to Davis, The reaction from the Kansas City community has been overwhelmingly positive.
“We debuted W&RC at Planet Comic-Con earlier this year and the reaction blew us away. Everyone who stopped by our booth was shocked and amazed. As soon as we told them that we do this for free for the families, people were even more interested. They asked how we do it, and I would explain that we have volunteers help build the costumes and donations to help pay for them. At that moment, they would either sign up as a volunteer; reach for their wallets, or both.”
They have even started hosting workshops for volunteers to help build 10 costumes for kids. A event Kickstarter campaign raised more than $3,000.
You can like them on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/WalkinRollin
To find out more information about this amazing cause, check out their website: http://www.walkinrollin.org/