Heroes in a Year of Virus

Health issues preoccupied all of us in 2020. Thehealthy.com found people making a memorable difference.

Every superhero, no matter how small, needs a cape. That was Robyn Rosenberger’s motivation when she started sewing superhero capes for kids with cancer, heart defects, and other serious ailments.

It all began when she was making a cape as a birthday present for her nephew. Rosenberger heard of a girl named Brenna who was battling a potentially deadly skin condition called harlequin ichthyosis. Anyone going through what she was going through had to be tough. “I had an aha moment,” Rosenberger says. “Brenna was a superhero! She needed a cape.”

So Rosenberger sent her one, and Brenna’s mother was delighted. Rosenberger found ten more kids online and sent out ten more capes. Before long, she quit her job at a software company to dedicate herself full-time to tinysuperheroes.com, a website where people can buy handmade capes for brave kids facing illness and disability.

Since 2013, Rosenberger and her small paid staff have sent more than 12,000 handmade capes to kids in all 50 states and 15 other countries. The capes come in pink, blue, purple, or red and can be emblazoned with the child’s initials or specialized patches, including a heart, a rocket, or a lightning bolt.

One recipient was eight-month-old Gabe, who was born with a cleft palate and Coffin-siris syndrome, which causes distinct facial features. Rosenberger sent him a red cape with a bright yellow in the center. It was a hit. Gabe is now a fixture on the company’s social media posts. “The Tinysuperhero community has been a wonderful connection to have,” says Gabe’s mom, Kate Glocke. In fact, two years later, “we still bring Gabe’s cape with us to every hospital appointment.”