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Patients in Inova Loudoun Hospital’s Pediatric Unit received a special visit from Spiderman, Mr. Incredible, Captain America, Superman, Stitch, Mario, Luigi, Bluey and other characters to help bring a little cheer to the children missing out on this year’s Halloween celebrations.
Fire and rescue personnel rappelled down Inova Loudoun’s seven-story building, dressed as superheroes and other fictional characters to wave at patients and write messages their windows. Children inside, some dressed as their favorite heroes, waved back.
The event was followed by the hospital’s reverse trick or treating celebration.
“Lots of people from the hospital different departments, nurses and doctors, staff, even other members of the fire department and different community groups come in and they visit the children in their rooms, bring them a little treat, say hi and get to see them in their costumes, since they might not be able to go trick or treating at home like they usually would,” Child Life Specialist Cindy DeFrancesco said.
Firefighters Visit Inova Pediatric Patients
Reverse trick or treating is an annual event, but fire and rescue personnel said this is the first they’ve partnered with Inova Loudoun for superhero rappelling.
“We thought, what better way to partner than to get the guys out here? We love having community members join us for different things like this, just to help spread cheer to the kids at different times during their hospitalization,” DeFrancesco said.
“It’s a great partnership between a Inova Loudoun and Loudoun County Fire and Rescue,” Lt. Jason Ilowite said. “And it’s not very often that we get the opportunity to have such a dual-purpose thing that we’re doing from our side, being able to spread some of that joy to kids who are in the hospital for Halloween is first and foremost an awesome thing that we are really happyto take part in. But it’s also a great training opportunity for our technical rescue team members. It’s not super often that we’re getting the chance to set up our rope systems and get this much height exposure and training. So, it’s just a great opportunity all around and I know from the fire department side of things, we couldn’t be happier to be part of it.”