It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s… Manitoba’s health minister?
If you saw Superman, Batman or the Blue Bombers mascot climbing down the Health Sciences Centre Children’s Hospital walls Friday, you don’t need to see an eye doctor. Police, firefighters, donors — and even politicians — rappelled from the roof at the third-annual Suspended Superheroes event.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Participants set their own goals for fundraising for the third-annual event.
Some children and their families watched the colourful dramatics outdoors and others took in the action through their hospital-room windows.
Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara, who participated for the first time — dressed as Superman — had “so much fun.”
“I hope kids and their families had as much fun as I did,” Asagwara said after making it down to solid ground. “It’s always inspiring when community comes together like we did today.”
Participants set dollar-figure targets for donations.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Superman and Batman were among those who rappelled from the roof.
A small group, dressed as minions from Despicable Me films, elicited squeals from toddlers in the crowd.
One of the minions was Ethan Burnell, 20, who decided to take part for the first time in hopes of giving back to a hospital that helped him heal from a brain tumour when he was just four years old.
Burnell set a target of $7,500 and the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba website showed he was 99 per cent of the way there late Friday afternoon. In total, about $53,000 had been raised at that point. Donations will be accepted for several more days.
The people who volunteered their time to make kids smile when he was a patient — be it a blue-haired clown who regularly visited or the Harlem Globetrotters — inspired him to sign on for training as a participant.
“I’ve never really done anything like that before, nothing to that scale,” he said. “It’s not as scary as you think.”
When he’s not climbing down a building in a Halloween costume, Burnell works as an accountant. He credits the “novel surgeries” he had at Children’s Hospital for saving his life.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Health minister Uzoma Asagwara and Bombers mascot Buzz rappel down the side of Children’s Hospital as part of the Suspended Superheroes event.
“It’s been important for me, especially, to give back in recognition of how critical the hospital was to my recovery and my well-being,” he said. “It’s been an important part of my life to give back in whatever way I can.”
Stefano Grande, president and CEO of the foundation, said the funding goes to services and programs that support patients and their families.
There are about 140 children with medical challenges who receive treatment at the hospital every day. Ensuring time and space for play is crucial, Grande said.
“Some have to stay for a day, and some have to stay for months,” he said.
“We want kids to be kids while they’re going through the worst time of their lives.”
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Malak Abas
Reporter
Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
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