Group transforms Middletown girl’s wheelchair into special Halloween costume

There were plenty of smiles Sunday when a Middletown 10-year-old received a special Halloween costume thanks to the efforts of Middletown police, AK Steel Middletown Works and the Magic Wheelchair project.

During the city’s Hocus Pocus event downtown, Nevaeh Grace Baltazar, who uses a wheelchair due to rare condition called Sacral Agenesis/Caudal Regression Syndrome, received an elaborate costume made for her from the “Wreck-It-Ralph” movie.

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During the big reveal, Baltazar was dressed as Vanellope Von Schweetz with her car. She will be ready for the Middletown Police Candy with a Cop event on Oct. 28 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., where employees and their families, officers, and volunteers from AK Steel will deliver candy to kids with disabilities who might not be able to get out for trick or treating. There are usually about 50 recipients every year, including siblings in the home.

Dawn Hutson and Doug Hayes from AK Steel/AK Cares met with police and asked if they could have Magic Wheelchair come in and present a wheelchair costume to one of the Candy with a Cop kids, according to Shelley Meehan, police communications and records supervisor.

Hayes, who works at AK Steel , is a volunteer for Magic Wheelchair. The organization’s mission is to bring communities together to help children by transforming their wheelchairs.

Meehan said Baltazar has surpassed everything doctors predicted she would not do and more.

“She has the warmest loving heart and is always concerned for others. Even when her bones hurt from contractures and not forming correctly at her joints in her little body she still manages to smile and make everyone around her laugh or give them a compliment. She is the most determined, independent, strong willed little girl,” Meehan said.

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According to her mother, Ginger Crawford, Baltazar likes unicorns and anything glittery or that sparkles. She loves music and Taylor Swift is one of her favorites. Her favorite movie is Wreck it Ralph and she loves Vanellope Von Schweetz.

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