Mitcham’s cousin was the fund’s first superhero.[/caption]

Dustin Mitcham said he wants to make every hospitalized child feel like a superhero.

In 2014, Mitcham, a high school sophomore, founded Healing Heroes Fund—a nonprofit organization that collects superhero costumes and donates them to Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas in Austin.

“Hospitalized children are going through a lot, and they want to feel strong,” Mitcham said. “I started thinking about ways we could empower them.”

Mitcham said he started the organization after his cousin was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at 18 months old. With the help of Mitcham’s mother, Heather Arroyo, he coordinates an annual donation drive in October as costumes become easily accessible in stores.

“We accept donations all year,” Mitcham said. “But we find that costumes are a great price right around Halloween, and it’s easy to find superhero costumes at that time.”

Arroyo said she and her son pursued nonprofit status for Healing Heroes so the organization could accept monetary donations. She said they believed monetary donations would be the most convenient way for supporters to contribute, and all funds are used to purchase new superhero costumes.

“Costumes will probably remain our primary focus,” Arroyo said. “There are a lot of great charities out there for children, so we want to stay focused on empowerment. It’s a piece of the puzzle that is not addressed as often.”

The 2015 fundraising goal for Healing Heroes is $1,000, Mitcham said.

Mitcham said he received a note thanking him for providing superhero costumes to sick children.[/caption]

Mitcham said his favorite moment while running the organization was receiving a thank-you card from the hospital staff after Healing Heroes’ first drive in 2014.

“It made me feel like we had made a difference, even in a small way,” he said. “We brought the kids a little bit of brightness.”

Mitcham said he hopes the organization will raise enough money to begin to work with additional hospitals as well as assemble a volunteer base in the near future.

“We’d love to expand to other hospitals and maybe even other states,” he said. “We want to raise enough to get bigger and bigger and impact as many lives as possible.”