‘Put on the Cape’ nonprofit helping children across the valley
Aug. 14, 2023
Nonprofit organization “Put on the Cape” empowers children suffering acute physical and sexual abuse. They adopt advocacy and child crisis centers in Arizona to ensure the children visiting have all their needs addressed.
Sean Reavie was a detective in a child crisis center and saw the needs firsthand, so he set out to create an organization to supply those needs so the professionals at the centers could focus on healing the children. The children receive food, clothes and their favorite superhero or Barbie action figure.
“Put on a Cape” uses superhero mythology because oftentimes in superhero movies, the main character has something really bad happen to them, and they use that to become a hero or help someone else in the process.
“We want to let them know that they can become a hero. They can unleash that inner hero inside of them. We use professional costumed actors and actresses to portray superheroes. We do events valley wide and we raise money for five different centers throughout the valley, empowering thousands of kids a year,” Reavie said.
When Reavie started, child advocacy centers across the valley were in dire need of basic items such as clothes, toys, food and diapers for children. This foundation supplies those items so the centers can take care of the child.
“Some of these children come in there with just the clothes on their backs. They haven’t eaten, they have shoes with holes in them. We make sure the entire family is taken care of,” Reavie said.
Through Lerner and Rowe, teen centers are being put in all of the centers that this organization works with. There will be foosball tables, computers, pool tables, etc. so that these teens can decompress and feel empowered.
Southwest Family Advocacy Center will be the first center with a special spot for teenagers. The ribbon cutting will be next month.