Kids and teenagers love to dress up, eat junk and party to embrace Halloween.
And most 13-year-olds spend 31 October watching spooky Halloween films with their friends, playing games and eating sweets at a Halloween party or pretending they don’t secretly enjoy taking their younger siblings trick-or-treating.
But one young teenager from Orlando, Florida used it as an opportunity to perform a charitable gesture.
This year, 13-year-old Rachel Maretsky spent her Halloween handing out personally-made superhero capes to premature babies who were having to spend the occasion in hospital.
https://www.facebook.com/winniepalmerhospital/photos/pcb.2172902006067471/2172898119401193/?type=3&theater
Rachel, who hand made 125 costumes for the infants, gave out the costumes in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Children, which is part of Orlando Health.
While the middle school student has made costumes for the department once before, this is the first time she was able to hand them out herself.
https://www.facebook.com/winniepalmerhospital/photos/pcb.2172902006067471/2172897376067934/?type=3&theater
Made from either black, blue or red cloths, the six different designs on the capes each came adored with its own superhero logo, including the classic Batman, Batgirl, Superman, Supergirl and Wonder Woman.
https://www.facebook.com/winniepalmerhospital/photos/pcb.2172902006067471/2172897386067933/?type=3&theater
This second time around Rachel added an Incredibles design, due to its recent popularity when the second film came out.
https://www.facebook.com/winniepalmerhospital/photos/pcb.2172902006067471/2172897979401207/?type=3&theater
Mums at the hospital have been greatly appreciative of the moving gesture, saying that it has made what is such a tough time a little bit easier for them.
https://www.facebook.com/winniepalmerhospital/photos/pcb.2172902006067471/2172897812734557/?type=3&theater
The schoolgirl told Daily Mail Online that she was inspired by a story she saw on NBC’s TODAY show in 2016, when nurses at a hospital in Kansas did something similar.
With the help of her parents and a few friends, Rachel managed to get together 110 capes and distributed them over the weekend.
However, when she discovered that more babies had arrived in the unit afterwards, she, along with her mother Abby, made 15 more costumes on the day of Halloween and gave them out.
https://www.facebook.com/winniepalmerhospital/photos/pcb.2172902006067471/2172897606067911/?type=3&theater
And did the local hero make a well-deserved cape for herself too? Well no, she decided to dress up childhood icon Winnie the Poo instead.
How cute!
