Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Sanchez.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Daniel. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Five years ago, Rebecka Haskins-Hunt – who herself battles Sturge-Weber Syndrome, a rare disease with over 20 related medical conditions – wanted to bring smiles and special days to similarly challenged children. She knew that children love movies and books, and the heroes found therein. She was also part of a community of costumers skilled at bringing characters to life – similar to what you would find at Disneyland. So she founded Heroic Inner Kids.
Since then, it has grown into 501c3 recognized charity serving hospitals, hospices, schools, libraries, marathons, special needs birthday parties, and more. Now kids can meet Captain America, Spider-Man, Princess Elsa, Dumbledore and Black Panther as they distribute backpacks and school supplies to economically disadvantaged children during the school year and toys at Christmas.
Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Captain Marvel, Rey, and Chewbacca can be found granting wishes for Make-A-Wish, cheering on athletes at the Special Olympics, reading to young children at libraries at various literacy days, and being there for families at Adoption Day.
Even Mickey Mouse and a Ninja Turtle may come to the home of a special child who would otherwise not be able to medically make the trip to a theme park to see them and help them not only forget their struggle but make them feel like the luckiest kid in the world. And in the sometimes unavoidable event that the disease overcomes them, we stay with the family. Sometimes to be with the child when they need a hero most, sometimes to stand with our little hero as pallbearers, and often to be there the next day, and the future – for the surviving siblings when they need a hero the most, too.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As with any endeavor, there were challenges. The biggest was the loss of our founder, who despite every ounce of will to continue, was forced to step down for her own medical reasons. Those who worked with her have carried the torch forward. The mission has only grown stronger because of her original vision. As National President, it is my goal for it to continue to grow as we enter more hospitals, more cities and develop new programs serving the special needs community and educating the public at large about special needs kids.
Please tell us about Heroic Inner Kids.
In addition to bringing real-life heroes to children, Heroic Inner Kids created a wonderful outreach program called “The Empathy Experience.” This experience brings the tools that special needs children use and give non-challenged kids the chance to see them, touch them, understand them, and remove the stigma of seeing a child use them.
Young people can type their name on a braille machine, try a vision-impaired obstacle course with an ADA cane, experience hearing loss and learn some primary sign language, try a child-safe practice epi-pen, see what it looks like to be color-blind, experience the frustration of ADHD with a computer game, spend some time operating a real wheelchair, and more.
This program takes away the unknown of these objects and makes them something a child now has in common with a special needs child. The hope is that the next time they see a special needs child using one of these tools, they would approach them with a shared experience – and as a friend who knows a bit of what their world is like and isn’t scared by it.
What challenged kids need in day-to-day life is to feel normal. To have friends. To be included and accepted and liked. Our program helps with that. In fact, it has been used by Scouting troops to help qualify scouts for their Disability Awareness merit badge.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
When I was four, my two yr-old sister was facing the end of her battle with Leukemia. My parents sheltered me from seeing her during her hospital stays, so my favorite memories were, of course, when she got to come home for even just a few days. We would play any game she wanted. Sometimes she would want to play hospital since that was most of her world, but she didn’t want to be the patient. She was the patient in real life enough. So I would be the patient and she would be the doctor – little plastic stethoscope and all. Sometimes she would want to play cowboys. Sometimes play fireman. But whatever it was, we would get the hats, the jackets – whatever it took – and play and laugh and be kids. To me, doing that was normal. She wanted to play and escape and feel normal, and being those characters made her smile and felt better. In a very real way, what we do with Heroic Inner Kids is just like what I did with my little sister.
Contact Info:
- Address: 100 Canyon Lane Irving, Tx 75063
- Website: https://heroicinnerkids.org/
- Email: info@HeroicInnerKids.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heroicinnerkids/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeroicInnerKids
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