$5K raised to dress heroes
PENN TWP — Parents, volunteers and business sponsors attended the Corks and Capes event Sept. 24 at the Penn Glade Lions Club to raise money to supply superhero capes to children in hospitals.
Danya Hefferan, a volunteer and event organizer, said the event raised more than $5,000 that will provide at least 178 capes to children for this year’s East Coast Cape Crusade, a program run by Capes4heroes.
Danya and her husband, Zach Hefferan, have a 3-year-old son, Calder, who has spina bifida, a birth defect of the spine.
The Hefferans are from Butler.
“There are many different medical reasons as to why the kids have been recipients of the capes, but at the end of the day, the one thing in common is that these kids are super heroes,” Danya Hefferan said.
Hefferan said Calder and his struggles were the inspirations for her and her husband to get involved with the Capes4heroes. The international organization focuses on making the lives of children better, specifically those who are confined to hospitals.
The East Coast Cape Crusade is the localized distribution program for major cities throughout the Northeastern U.S.
The Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh is one of the locations where the capes will be handed out in the spring.
Hefferan said children who won’t be at the hospital during the event receive their capes by mail.
Hefferan said the capes they have accumulated from their efforts will be prioritized to sponsored children in the Pittsburgh region, but any extras will be distributed to other locations too.
“During these events, capes are brought to the hospital and children are able to pick out a super hero cape,” Hefferan said. “We then have volunteers who personalize the capes by sewing on the first initial of the child’s name on-site,” Hefferan said.
Hefferan said a Butler County child can receive a cape. They first need to be nominated by someone and then sponsored, which covers the $30 cost to make the cape. Then the capes will be distributed.
Hefferan said she hopes to continue their efforts in Butler County because she has seen a lot of support from businesses and from many residents willing to sponsor children.
“Providing super hero capes may seem like simple task, but these capes are so much more than that to these families,” Hefferan said. “They provide strength, hope and normal moments of just being able to be a kid, something so many easily take for granted.”
To learn more about the nonprofit organization or to nominate or sponsor a child, visit
