Codington Elementary and 101 Mobility team up for Halloween parade

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Every year Codington Elementary School in Wilmington hosts a Halloween parade, but this isn’t just any parade.

For four years, 101 Mobility has teamed up with students in the Specially Designed Academics class to make wheelchair accessible costumes for the kids. The costumes are custom made for each child by the 101 Mobility staff.

“This parade is amazing,” Codington SDA-DL Teacher Hayley Meadows said. “It’s a great opportunity for all of the kids to have a costume accessible for them for Halloween.”

“Our staff typically starts working on costumes about a month ahead and it takes many, many hours and lots of planning,” 101 Mobility President David Pazgan said. “And we do get a lot of ideas from the kids in terms of the types of costumes that they’re interested in and we try to build them what they want.”

“We see the kids really get happy and excited, and the parents get really into it too, and it’s such a community feeling that our whole school is so supportive of it, and it’s just become a big tradition, and as a teacher it’s just a blessing to be able to see that kind of joy be brought to the kids,” Meadows said.

Shadawn Sampson’s daughter, Kendyll, is in the Specially Designed Academics class at Codington. This was Kendyll’s first year participating in the parade.

“With Kendyll being born with special needs, it’s a lot of things that people said that she wouldn’t be able to do, so to see her be able to do anything, you know to me, is awesome,” Sampson said.

“I hope it’s something that Codington and 101 Mobility continue to do for a really long time,” Meadows said. “It’s such a great experience that brings joy to so many people.”

“This is the moments that we live for, especially for our kids as well,” Sampson said. “They can’t do a lot of stuff, so we’ve got to be out here in the community to help them do the things, and while these kids out trick-or-treating, whether they’ve got special needs or not, be supportive, speak to them because they are humans and they want to have fun just like everybody else.”

Pazgan added that 101 Mobility is looking forward to making the parade even bigger and better next year.