Outside a hospital window, Superman waved to a group of smiling children.
He was one of four superheroes who swung on rappel lines outside a children’s hospital, high-fiving through the glass. It was an event organized by police two weeks ago in Colorado — an event local agencies are hoping to replicate at UF Health Shands Hospital.
The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office shared a video from the Aug. 12 visit that was uploaded by Children’s Hospital Colorado on Facebook on Aug. 20. They tagged Gainesville Police and wrote the two departments "need to team up and pull this off at UF Health."
"And the wheels of planning are already turning," GPD said in a Twitter comment.
The post has received nearly 600 likes on the sheriff’s office’s Facebook page as of press time, and the original video has more than 12,000 likes. Alachua County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Art Forgey confirmed the planning and said initial plans have been in the works since he and GPD spokesman officer Ben Tobias spoke to their SWAT teams.
"It would be a collaborative effort between the four agencies with Shands’ cooperation," Forgey said.
Rossana Passaniti, the media relations manager at Shands, said she expected an update on the idea.
"I know that the issue is kind of being looked at by the powers that be," she said. "But I haven’t seen any movement on this one since last week."
The original event happened a year ago when cancer survivor Hallie Wastell posted the idea on a Facebook page called The Bucket List Life, according to Diana Cooley, an Aurora Police Department public information officer. Cooley said the event motivated patients, including a child who left the bed for the first time after weeks of recovering from a boating accident.
"The kiddos and the staff and the families and the hospital were very excited and happy that we did this," she said.
Dave Krieger, an Aurora SWAT team leader who participated in the event as Spider-Man, said a local shop donated the costumes and everything came together after a couple of months.
"It was a very powerful experience for all of us, and somewhat emotional actually," he said.
The experience was even more meaningful, Krieger said, because the officers are all fathers.
"We kind of all walked away from it just shaking our heads and counting our blessings."
Krieger said he and the rest of his department are available to answer any questions that Gainesville’s agencies might have about planning a successful superhero appearance.
Dave Krieger (right), an Aurora SWAT team leader dressed as Spiderman, rappels down the side of Children’s Hospital Colorado August 12, 2015.
