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The San Antonio Police Department's SWAT unit and the San Antonio Fire Department came together for the 11th year in a row dressed as superheroes and rappelled down the building to bring Halloween to the Baptist Children’s Hospital at North Central.
The Halloween superhero drop became a tradition at Baptist after five-year-old Julian Andrade, the son of SAPD officer Jose Andrade, lost his battle with cancer in 2015. His family organized the SAPD and SAFD to surprise Julian as superheroes since he would be spending Halloween in the hospital. The departments decided to continue bringing the superheroes back every year in dedication and honor of Julian.
Parents Emily and Sam Wagner’s two-year-old daughter Weslie unexpectedly came to the hospital yesterday when she fell ill.
“And so her potentially missing trick or treating and stuff, like, this was definitely something that came in clutch for her to still get the experience of Halloween,” Sam Wagner said. “So this is, this has been awesome.”
The superheroes went down the building three times to ensure the kids got to wave hello. Spiderman got the show started and others such as Black Panther, Batman, Superman, Deadpool, and more kept it going.
Mackenzie Hazelwood, the pediatric services manager, worked with child life specialists to ensure the children were comfortable in the hallway where they sat to see the superheroes pass by the windows.
“'No one wants to be in the hospital,' is kind of what we say. But when they're here, we try to make their stay as best as possible,” Hazelwood said. “From, you know, nursing care, interactions with the physicians, and to have superheroes here, it's a, you know, the cherry on top, and trying to just make their day a little bit better.”
The pediatrics unit cares for children ages two to 16. Some of them cannot consume candy because of their health conditions. However, the superheroes came to the rescue. After rappelling down the building, they passed out toys to the children.
Public Information Officer Emily Garvin said the police department continues to show up for the kids on Halloween.
“As a department, our main priority is community outreach, right? We are always with people on their worst days. They only call us for some of the worst situations, right,” Garvin said. “So for us to be able to ground ourselves back to this and do what we do, reach out to the community, love the community, I think as a department, that's one of our core values that we hold very close to ourselves.”
