She’s a Swan Princess ballerina and he’s a Pokémon Charizard, and this was the best Halloween ever! Two Dacula Elementary School students had “epic” costumes this year, thanks to the hard work and creativity of a group of Central Gwinnett High School students and Magic Wheelchair.
Magic Wheelchair is a non-profit organization started by Ryan and Lana Weimer to provide their children in wheelchairs with cool costumes for Halloween. Over time, the Stan Winston School of Character Arts has joined in to provide support on design and implementation for groups building wheelchair costumes for children in their community.
Anna Maria D’Antonio-D’Abramo, Central Gwinnett’s Fine Arts and Communications Academy Coach, says Magic Wheelchair was a good match for the school’s focus on project-based learning in an Academy setting. She explains, “With our school’s switch to a College and Career Academy and the focus of project-based learning, this was the perfect community service project. “
Students submitted applications to be a part of the building teams that met after school and some Saturdays for more than a month. Theatre Technical Director Kevin Bunch and Kevin Seymour, an Engineering teacher, led the student teams in the creation and design of the wheelchair costumes. The teams measured, built, cut, and even welded an assortment of materials to create a costume that would mount to each child’s wheelchair.
The costumes were unveiled on Oct. 29, during the school’s Safe Trick-or-Treat event. Drawing a crowd to the campus, the annual event is hosted by the school’s Key Club to promote community within the Central Gwinnett Cluster. Safe Trick-or-Treat brings together families from all seven cluster schools— Central Gwinnett High School, Jordan Middle School, Moore Middle School, Jenkins Elementary School, Lawrenceville Elementary School, Simonton Elementary School, and Winn Holt Elementary School.
For more great photos of the wheelchairs and the Safe Trick-or-Treat event, see the Gwinnett Daily Post.
Pokémon Charizard begins on paper...
...gets checked against the original
...and comes to life!