Costumes for Courage gives ‘suits of armor’ to kids facing medical challenges
Is that a princess in the waiting room? Batman at the nurses station? And talking to that doctor — is that Chewbacca?
Costumes for Courage, a nonprofit based in the Pittsburgh area, is seeking to bring a little fun to the hospital for kids facing medical challenges and difficult treatment. The organization provides costumes, free of charge, to children to wear to ease the stress, discomfort and, at times, pain while visiting the doctor.
Courtney Durante, a project manager living in Irwin and a graduate of Carlow University, was inspired to create Costumes for Courage by her daughter, Lilli.
Lilli has an optic pathway glioma, a slow-growing tumor where the eye and brain connect. She had to have chemotherapy and wanted to wear a dress during her first appointment.
Ms. Durante said Lilli loved the attention and comments from people in the hospital, so she wore a different princess dress each time she went back for her 52 weeks of chemotherapy. Picking out the costumes the night before gave her something to look forward to in an otherwise difficult situation.
“She would be so excited to show her care team and to just share her selection for the week with everybody,” Ms. Durante said. “And then her care team would be excited to see her and see what she was wearing. She had everything from light-up dresses to singing dresses to motionactivated dresses to dresses so big they barely fit through the door. It really made a big difference for her.”
Since then, the organization received its nonprofit status in March 2020 — a day or two before the pandemic hit and forced organizers to kick off operations in October. In just a few months, Costumes for Courage has provided more than 100 costumes to people in over 20 different states and three different countries.
Ms. Durante’s sister, Caitlin Attininger, of Bethel Park, is a co-founder of the organization. She said it was difficult to have gotten all the paperwork approved to begin operations only to then have the world shut down.
“It kind of felt like getting hit with a brick in some ways,” Ms. Attinger said. “But I think what it did allow us to do is to step back and regroup. It forced us to be a lot grittier and more creative, which I think, longer-term, will be a benefit to us. It’s really allowed us to broaden our impact.”
Ms. Durante said most of the families that reach out have heard about the organization through word-ofmouth. Those interested can fill out a costume request form on the nonprofit’s website, costumesforcourage.org. The form asks applicants to give a couple of different costume options and to tell a bit about the child to make sure their costume suits their personality. All the costumes are new and store-bought.
“We’ve given a lot of ‘Frozen’ costumes; that’s one of the top requests,” Ms. Durante said. “We’ve also given quite a few princesses, superheroes. One of my favorite requests was for a train — we found a train costume for him.”
She also said among the top choices were characters from “Star Wars,” Disney Junior shows, children’s book character Fancy Nancy and video games such as Minecraft. Siblings affected by the difficult family situation are also eligible to receive costumes.
Ms. Durante said the pandemic had seriously impacted plans for how the organization was going to operate. Originally, she and her team planned to hold costume drives, perhaps partnering with other nonprofits or hospitals, where children could come and select costumes and accessories. Costumes for Courage ended up shipping all of the costumes to families instead, waiting to hold such drives until it can do so safely.
“One of our favorite things is hearing the stories from parents about the costumes and their children’s reactions when they receive them,” Ms. Durante said. “There’s been a lot of heartwarming stories that we really love.”
For instance, she recalled a boy who had been in the hospital for weeks when his costume was delivered. His mom brought it in, and he was excited to wear it home and receive attention from the staff. She also remembered a girl who wore her doctor costume to the hospital.
“We’re doing this to make it a little bit easier on the children, to give them that suit of armor, to give them the courage,” she said. “That’s why we call it Costumes for Courage.”