FEELS ON WHEELS: Wheelchair Costumes Turn Kids Into Superheroes

Warning: This might make you cry.

One Halloween, Ryan Weimer’s then-3-year-old son wanted to dress up as a pirate. But his son, who has spinal muscular atrophy, is restricted to a wheelchair. So Ryan fashioned a homemade costume that incorporated the wheelchair as a pirate ship, and his son absolutely loved it. From that idea was born Magic Wheelchair—a global non-profit organization that creates custom wheelchair costumes for kids. In addition to bringing joy to the costumed kids and their families, Weimer says his designs can act as a “cure for the day” by liberating the kids from the stigma so often attached to wheelchairs.

[Great Big Stories]