Walkin' & Rollin' Twisted Halloween Party! Vol. 2
Our second annual reveal party at the Twisted Halloween store was another success. The amount of people who came out to support these amazing kids and their awesome costumes astonishes me every time. So here are the highlights of our party on Saturday, October 20, 2018.
The highlights of the day were the 10 newest wheelchair costumes revealed to 10 local kids!
The highlights of the day were the 10 newest wheelchair costumes revealed to 10 local kids!
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Moses received the first costume from Rockhurst high school. They built a costume with music and sound effects. Moses loved pushing the buttons and hearing the Avengers theme song played on the overhead speakers.
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Finley was the next child to get their Halloween wheelchair costume courtesy of the Blue Valley CAPS program. They built her an amazing Princess Belle costume with stained glass rose wheels, and a dress/blanket that was attached to her seatbelt so when you unbuckled her seatbelt, the dress would come off too. There was also a large rose covered candy box in the back for Finley to collect all of her candy on Halloween night.
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Howie loves "Mickey and the Roadster Racers." So when it came time for him to choose his wheelchair costume, it was easy to choose Mickey Mouse in his Roadster. The team at Blue Valley CAPS did a fantastic job creating this car for Howie and he loved his steering wheel that made all kinds of sounds for him. He's ready to trick-or-treat.
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Chaz is a very fun and happy child. He loves talking to everyone. So when he said he wanted to be royalty and be "King Chaz" for Halloween, the Olathe Northwest High School, Engineer a Better Tomorrow team stepped up and granted his wish. King Chaz can now drive around addressing his subjects from the luxury of his own personal throne.
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Bethany's Moana costume was the 2nd costume created by Olathe Northwest High School, Engineer a Better Tomorrow. This awesome costume featured Hei Hei the chicken, in the front of the boat, and a retractable sail. Bethany will have so much fun sailing around on Halloween night.
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When Emily came to us and said she wanted to have a horse for her costume and that she wanted it to rear up when her wheelchair reclined, we weren't exactly sure how to pull it off. But Finite Engineering stepped up and not only pulled that challenge off, they also made the horse gallop, whinny and have a glowing mane.
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Lexi was interested in being Cinderella in her pumpkin coach for Halloween. We started this costume at one of our workshops and finished it up with many lights, battery operated candles and lots of sparkles and glitter. Lexi was very happy with her new ride.
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Zoe is a big fan on the Disney movie, "Descendants 2" and her favorite character was Ursula's daughter, Uma. Uma is a pirate who also happens to turn her legs into octopus tentacles. So the costume featured all of these elements and also blasted out Uma's theme song for Zoe to play while trick-or-treating. Happy Halloween.
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Piper is a very cute little girl who also wanted to be Moana for Halloween. So at our workshop, a team of volunteers created her own boat with an animatronic Hei-Hei chicken and lots of water and sound effects of the water being rowed along side the boat. Her costume came out great.
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Clark was not sure what happened to his wheelchair when we pulled off the sheet to reveal the costume. He was sure that was NOT his wheelchair anymore, but after a while, he warmed up to the idea that his wheelchair was transformed into RC from "Toy Story" so he could drive it around on Halloween dressed as Woody.
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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 Rey from "Star Wars," Batgirl, Raccoon City Police from "Resident Evil," a Sith Lord and even Elastagirl! We had a great caricature artist, Darryl Woods, who was turning many kids into zombies with his drawings. We had "Aunt Nancy's Face Art" and they created some amazing faces with colorful designs and a few slightly frightening designs. The kids loved it. We had local celebrity, Crystle Lampitt to help with our reveals as our guest emcee. She did a fabulous job and was constantly sharing everything that was going on around the store and the event.
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A big surprise came from Johnny Dare and his Morning Show. At our event, Johnny Dare surprised us again this year 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. This is so kind and generous of you. Thank you.
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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
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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 $100-250 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.
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 website is located at: www.twistedhalloweenkc.com
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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 few years, 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. Their office is 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 easily done through our website at www.WalkinRollin.org/Donate. You can sponsor a part of a costume, the shipping costs of a costume, or even an entire costume. Any amount helps.
You can also volunteer as a builder or have your company build a costume as a team at www.WalkinRollin.org/Volunteer.
And finally, if you are a school interested in building these costumes as part of the STEM program, learn more about how you can do that at www.WalkinRollin.org/Schools.
Thank you,
Lon Davis
Owner
Walkin’ & Rollin’ Costumes
Donating is easily done through our website at www.WalkinRollin.org/Donate. You can sponsor a part of a costume, the shipping costs of a costume, or even an entire costume. Any amount helps.
You can also volunteer as a builder or have your company build a costume as a team at www.WalkinRollin.org/Volunteer.
And finally, if you are a school interested in building these costumes as part of the STEM program, learn more about how you can do that at www.WalkinRollin.org/Schools.
Thank you,
Lon Davis
Owner
Walkin’ & Rollin’ Costumes