Nonprofit aims to turn special needs kids in Rutherford County into comic book heroes
Special needs students in Rutherford County may get to live out their dreams of becoming superheroes in the near future.At Thursday’s Rutherford County School Board meeting, The Every Kid Is A Hero Foundation presented board members with a proposal to give special needs students in the district a chance to become heroes in a comic.“What we have done, we’ve become a foundation called The Every Kid Is A Hero Foundation,” said foundation representative Lee Colvin. “Within this county’s school system, what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to come in and we’re trying to work with the special needs high school programs.”Tennessee native Britt Maxwell and Drew Van Huss created the foundation and they’ve partnered with Epic Starfish Comics to create the comics.Kids become heroes by going to a website and making an avatar. From there, they can add themselves to the different comic lines and plots that are available. If a student had an assistive device such as a wheelchair, then a similar device will be added to their character.“What we’d like to do is try to set up an October, maybe November time frame where we can do an “Every Kid Is A Hero Day.” Almost like a Special Olympics. But we have student volunteers come in from one or two of the high schools and help the kids, the kids did a whole parade around the track, we had some up and rising seniors from Nashville come in and do some singing as well, we had the Mayor of Gallatin come in so we’d love to do the same here, mayor of Murfreesboro, mayor of Rutherford come in, but really raise up these children and make them feel like they cannot only be special, they can be (the) superhero of their own stories. They can be (the) superhero of their own lives,” said Colvin.The organization is currently seeking donors and sponsors to raise money to create the comics and to donate to participating special education classrooms.Rutherford County Schools would be the foundation’s second district to host an event. Last year the foundation partnered with Sumner County Schools to host an “Every Kid Is A Hero Day” at Station Camp High School in Gallatin.
Members of the Rutherford County School Board expressed support for the proposal and the board is now planning to discuss finalizing plans for the event at a future meeting.“I just wanna say, real quickly, if any of our teachers, we have wonderful, wonderful CDC structured settings, special education teachers, right now they are speechless. They’re overwhelmed with your generosity and just wanting to help. Because these are the greatest kids in the world and sometimes, I have felt in the past that they’re kind of like at the bottom of the totem pole. And I appreciate so much everything you’re doing. I wanna help you. I will help you in any way that I can because this is near and dear to my heart,” said board member Claire Maxwell.
