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walkinrollin · 7 years ago

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RECAP: Walkin’ & Rollin’ Twisted Halloween Party!

Words cannot explain how thankful we are for the amazing turnout on Saturday, September 30, 2017. This was the first time we had attempted a fund raiser party and we were blown away by the experience we had. I’m sure some of the families that received costumes, the visitors and volunteers had some similar experiences too.

The highlights of the day were when we revealed our 3 newest wheelchair costumes to 3 local kids, Macy, Gaige and Madi.

Our first featured VIP child was Macy. This happy 4-year-old girl requested a “Wheel of Fortune” themed costume. The costume featured big sections of the famous wheel from the show on the sides of her wheelchair. Each side also featured blinking green lights around the sides. The frame of the costume was all purple with lots of jewels and bling all over it. Then above Macy was the puzzle being solved on the show. The puzzle was Macy’s favorite nursery rhyme, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, How I Wonder What You Are.” This top section had pink lights around the frame. In the center of the costume, we included a spinning wheel right in front of Macy that she enjoyed spinning once she had the costume attached to her wheelchair. She could spin it the whole time she goes trick-or-treating. Macy enjoyed the costume and had fun wearing it at the party the rest of the time she was there.

Our second featured VIP child was Gaige. This amazing 4-year-old boy is a huge KU Jayhawk fan and loves to listen to KU Basketball games on the radio. The fact that Gaige was also blind, added a new design element to the costume that we hadn’t been exposed to. The whole costume needed to be pleasant to touch and feel and needed to also include sounds to interact with. So, we designed a special KU Basketball themed wheelchair costume for him with a giant 3D plush Jayhawk hooded fuzzy blanket over the top of the wheelchair. The wings wrapped around to Gaige’s shoulders. Then we included a board in front of Gaige that was orange with grooves carved into it that mimicked the black lines of a basketball. That way Gaige could trace his fingers along those lines to know what it was. At the front of the board was a Jayhawk basketball net hanging down with a removable bucket set down in it. The bucket was to hold all the candy Gaige was going to get at Halloween, but could be removed so Gaige could use it as just a basketball net. Also on top of the board, were 8 big bright buttons and a speaker. These were each assigned a different sound effect. There was the “Rock Chalk Jayhawk” chant, the final seconds of the 2012 Championship game (Gaige’s favorite to listen to) and then a few surprises for the family. Brain Hanni, the voice on the radio of Jayhawk basketball, recorded some play by play recordings of a fictional game where Gaige was the star player on the field. Each recording had Gaige interacting with different KU players and becoming the game’s MVP. The final button was a special recording made by Coach Bill Self, where he talked about Gaige and what an amazing kid he is. It was emotional for the family and I think for a few of the spectators as well.

Our third featured VIP child was Madi. This energetic 5-year-old girl loves airplanes. Any type of plane, she loves it. So, for her unique costume, we partnered up with Prairie Fire 4-H club to build this amazing costume for Madi. They started the reveal by announcing they went with an Amelia Earhart plane for a few reasons. She is a local hero from Kansas, she flew a pretty cool plane and did some amazing things herself. A perfect matchup for Madi. Then the team gave Madi some gifts. First a book about Amelia Earhart, then a full costume for her to wear that matched what Amelia Earhart wore. Then it was time for the reveal. The plane ended up being the largest costume reveal we did at the party. It had a wide wingspan, a spinning propeller in the front, and a tail behind that featured Amelia’s plane numbers, but Madi’s name painted on the back. It was amazing and Madi loved it.

The other events that happened at the party include an art table where kids could design any wheelchair costume they wanted to. There are some amazing ideas which we will be adding to our costume sketch database very soon. Keep an eye out for those.

There were many meet-and-greet cosplayers including Elsa, Cyclops, Elmo, Batgirl, Supergirl, a group of 4 Lego Superheroes, and many Star Wars characters from the 501st and the Rebel Legion. All the kids, and most adults made sure to get in there and have their pictures taken with them throughout the day.

We had a great caricature artist, Darryl Woods, who was turning many kids into zombies with his drawings. There were quite a few kids and adults who made sure to get their portraits done as well. Thank you, Darryl, for helping at our event.

We had some great face painters at the event who did a great job of decorating the faces with colorful designs and a few slightly frightening designs. The kids loved it.

One of the biggest surprises came from Johnny Dare and his Morning Show. A few days before the event, Johnny Dare had us on his radio show to promote the event. After talking about what we do and what it means to the families, Johnny opened it up to his listeners to donate. Within 15 minutes, his listeners had raised $3,000 for Walkin’ & Rollin’ Costumes. Then at our event, Johnny Dare surprised us again by personally donating $5,000 to our organization! Thank you so much. That was a huge help and will allow us to make many costumes for kids.

We also had several vendors who helped make the event possible. Planet Comicon was so helpful in getting many of the cosplayers there for meet and greets, as well as having many of the volunteers to run the event. Thank you so much. They also kept the place hoping with music all day long. Find out more about Planet Comicon at: www.PlanetComicon.com

3rd Street Asylum haunted house was there passing out tattoos and having a couple of their masks on display for people to see. They also helped by sponsoring Macy’s Wheel of Fortune Costume. We look forward to partnering with them again with another costume they have already sponsored. Find out more about 3rd Street Asylum at: www.3rdStreetAsylum.com

Toynbee’s House of Horrors were there in full costume as some of the clowns from their haunted house. They posed for pictures and were kind enough to also sponsor another costume, the KU Basketball costume for Gaige. Find out more about Toynbee’s House of Horrors at: www.ToynbeesHouseOfHorrors.com

Kansas City Comic Con was also present to let people know about the upcoming comic con in November and give out little gifts to everyone who stopped by. Find out more about Kansas City Comic Con at: www.KansasCity-ComicCon.com

These costumes that we build, as well as the other costumes we are currently building for Halloween this year, are 100% funded by sponsors, and donors just like you. On average, these costumes cost about $250 in supplies, and if we need to ship them to the families, it averages another $100 in shipping fees. But the families that receive these costumes never pay for them. They are FREE to each family that requests a walker or wheelchair costume from Walkin’ & Rollin’ Costumes. All the builders we have are volunteers, and we have about 100 volunteers spread out across the United States and we are constantly adding more. We even have groups that have requested to build the costumes together, such as high school classes, 4-H clubs, advertising agencies, engineering companies, and many more. When we receive a costume request from our website, we try and pair them up with a volunteer builder or team in their area. If we don’t have a volunteer in their area, we will contact a volunteer that has the skills we need for a particular costume and then ship the costume to the family.

I would like to thank our many sponsors at the party. In addition to the vendors that were at the party, these additional sponsors support Walkin’ & Rollin’ Costumes.

First, I want to thank Michelle Hoffine with “Twisted Halloween” for hosting the party. What an amazing store and the way that Michelle helped us every step of the way, was truly appreciated. Thank you, Michelle. Her store is full of unique items for any fan of Halloween, whether that’s pieces for your costume, decorations for your house, or just hard to find costumes. I love this store and I highly recommend it to anyone. The “Twisted Halloween” store is located at: 12932 W. 87th Street Pkwy, Lenexa, KS 66215 There website is located at: www.twistedhalloweenkc.com

Thank you to Joe Tindall, the owner of “GrandMark Signs” in Lenexa, KS. Joe has been a tremendous help with our costumes for the past year, and continues to do so. GrandMark Signs has handled the printing of all of our graphics for the costumes onto vinyl stickers for easy application to the frames and wheel covers. This allows the graphics on our costumes to become vibrant in color and waterproof as well. The speed and quality has always been perfect as well. Thank you so much, Joe, for all that you do for Walkin’ & Rollin’ Costumes. If you need any printing done for your office signage or any other items that GrandMark Signs can help with, please consider using them. They are located at: 11080 Strang Line Road, Lenexa, KS 66215 and can also be found at www.grandmarksigns.com.

And finally, thank you to Joe Reitinger with “Muffler Mart.” Joe has agreed to sponsor one of our upcoming costumes. Joe also spent the entire day at our event helping out. Thank you so much. Muffler Mart is located at: 518 North 7th, Kansas City, KS 66101

Our goal is a lofty one. We want to build a costume for any child with special needs that requests one. Right now, we receive more requests than we are capable of building. But with more funding, and more volunteers, we can meet that goal and bring a smile to every child with special needs that we can.

Donating is easy. You can donate through our website at www.WalkinRollin.org, or our Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/WalkinRollin. You can sponsor a part of a costume, the shipping costs of a costume, or even an entire costume. Any amount helps.

Thank you, Lon Davis Owner Walkin’ & Rollin’ Costumes

#wheelchaircostume #Halloween #Fundraiser #Wheelchair #Wheelchaircosplay #Cosability #Cosplay4All #WalkinRollinCostumes #WRCBlog

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