Humble Heroes of FDNY<\/a> are celebrating 10 years of donning superhero costumes for Big Apple children who need them the most.<\/p>\nOff-duty FDNY firefighter Rob Vogt, dressed as Superman, interacts with special-needs students at the Robert Randall School during a Humble Heroes of FDNY visit. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n
The collection of heroic New York City firefighters, NYPD officers and public school teachers have made the rounds to dozens of schools, hospitals and grief camps. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust like the [fire] department, it\u2019s always about giving back and stepping up to help out others,\u201d said firefighter Rob Vogt during a Humble Heroes visit Friday to PS 357R Robert Randall School, a special-needs school in Staten Island.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a hospital visit last month,\u201d Vogt recounted in his Superman garb.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were kids in isolation, and we couldn\u2019t necessarily see them, but just seeing us in a window changed their whole day: the nurses told us everything, how grateful they were.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
NYPD Detective Matt Schmalix as Deadpool poses with a Staten Island public school student. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n
The first responders were met on Friday with cheers from kindergarten through second-grade students, who lit up at the sight of their favorite big-screen characters walking the halls.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy favorite part is seeing the children\u2019s smiles,\u201d said city public school teacher Jillian Valverde, who donned a Batgirl costume. \u201cOh, my goodness \u2013 some of them, they light up. They run over to you. They are filled with love. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s definitely the most rewarding part of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alongside the caped crusaders, firefighters Rich Cendali, Andrew Costello and Gary Chan appeared as the Green Lantern, Thor and Spider-Man, respectively, while NYPD Detective Matt Schmalix moonlighted as Deadpool.<\/p>\n
Longtime FDNY firefighter Timmy Liss, who serves as the driver for the Humble Heroes, called the costume initiative an \u201ceasy transition\u201d for everyday heroes.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirefighting is a noble profession and, obviously, this is a noble cause,\u201d said Humble Heroes driver Timmy Liss. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cFirefighting is a noble profession and, obviously, this is a noble cause,\u201d said the Staten Island-based smoke eater, who is assigned to Engine 155\u2019s Family Assistance Unit. \u201cThis is an easy thing for firemen. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey love doing this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
The effort began in 2015 when firefighter Robert Banome and friends dressed as Power Rangers for a Halloween party, where they spoke with a woman whose son had cancer, Humble Heroes\u2019 scheduling manager Alyssa LaRocca, Banome\u2019s sister-in-law, told The Post.<\/p>\n
Shortly after, Banome sustained burns while on the job and, while recovering at the hospital, asked nurses if hospitalized children would be interested in meet-and-greets from superheroes.<\/p>\n
The first responders were met on Friday with cheers from kindergarten through second-grade students. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cI fell in love with the feeling we got [during visits], it\u2019s such a simple act it doesn\u2019t take a lot,\u201d LaRocca added. \u201cIt gives the kids a break from what they\u2019re going through: the younger kids really believe a superhero just came.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The team is now comprise of about 60 volunteers \u2013 including a Pennsylvania chapter \u2013 who make between two and four visits per month.<\/p>\n
Regular sites include St. Jude\u2019s and New York Presbyterian, LaRocca said. During the pandemic, the heroes would even host drive-by \u201cparades\u201d on Staten Island to lift spirits during lockdown.<\/p>\n
The team now represents about 60 volunteers, including a Pennsylvania chapter. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n
The group also touts its own in-house \u201ccostume creator\u201d Kenny Restrepo, a military vet and former NYPD officer who helps design some of the more elaborate costumes. Other costumed characters in the fleet include Captain America, Batman and a spate of Disney princesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese costumes are amazing; we had very detailed texts of how to put them on, what to do with them,\u201d said Costello, while transformed into Thor. \u201cThe costumes would create a lot of excitement with the kids; the kids love it, so it\u2019s really what it\u2019s all about.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish I could fit in these costumes,\u201d Liss remarked, noting that his duties as a driver range from handing out toys to running last-minute errands. \u201cI envy [the costumed heroes] and the joy of these kids that you saw, it\u2019s unbelievable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing like it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"These caped crusaders are on a special mission. A super team of iconic movie characters dubbed the Humble…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[194,195,196,57,9,24,55,197,54,56,198,58],"class_list":["post-140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-fdny","tag-firefighters","tag-heroes","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-life","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-superheroes","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}