Andover middle school students build adaptive costumes for young people in wheelchairs

In an effort to make sure a group with special needs aren't excluded on Halloween, a group of Andover Central Middle School students showcase ingenuity and creativity.

They did so in the construction of two adaptive costumes for trick-or-treaters in wheelchairs, incorporating the chairs into the costume design.

an organization dedicated to supporting children and teens battling life-threatening medical conditions, identifies recipients for the Halloween-costume project.

For Zachary Sims, the students created a hydra tank Halloween costume.

"I really loved it. It's the best thing they could ever do," Sims says.

His mother, Heather Sims, says the costume is "more than (she) could've expected."

"...I don't know what I imagined. It wasn't this big. It's great," she says.

Seventh-and-eighth-grade students in Cindy Ehrstein's design and modeling class at Andover Central Middle School designed the costumes.

"The things they discover and they develop, i'm just always so amazed at what they come up with," Ehrstein says.

For another trick-or-treater dependent on a wheelchair to get around, the students created a dinosaur costume. They say it took weeks of research and in the end, they learned a lot about what it means to help others.

"I feel like it turned out really well, because originally, we were kind of like, 'the dinosaur is going to be really hard,'" design student Katelyn Shroeder says. "And I think it turned out really well for our little knowledge of how to do it."

For all they learned about design and construction, student Payton Devlin touched on a bigger lesson that truly represents what the project was all about.

"I learned if you help people, you can have a better life and feel good about yourself," she says.