AKRON, Ohio — Amanda Adey started Lyndee’s Costume Closet while she was working at Akron Children’s Hospital earlier this year. 

What You Need To Know

  • A northeast Ohio mother started a costume closet at Akron Children’s Hospital to bring joy to sick kids

  • The closet allows hospital employees to dress up as famous characters whenever a child might need a pick-me-up 

  • The closet started in February and has been a huge hit so far 

 “I got a call from a child life specialist that we needed to drop everything and find an adult Spiderman costume,” Adey said. 

That costume was worn by a hospital employee to surprise a little boy who was a patient with his favorite superhero. 

“I picked the costume up and I was telling the person who was selling it to me what this was for,” she said. “I said it was a really strange request, and he said ‘no, we get that all of the time.’”

From there, Lyndee’s Costume Coset was born.

It allows employees at the hospital access to several costumes so they can dress up to bring their patients a bit of cheer. They have about a dozen costumes to choose from. 

The closet was named after Adey’s 10-year-old daughter, Lyndee, who has spent her fair share of time as a patient at Akron Children’s. 

“I mean my favorite thing always to do, almost every single day after school. I love to dress up,” Lyndee said. “So this is like my favorite thing.” 

Katie Fleck, a child life specialist at Akron Children’s, said the staff has already put these costumes to good use. 

“These little things make a huge difference for these kids and their ability to be motivated to keep working hard and get better,” Fleck said. “It can really make their day and also have an effect on their recovery."

Adey said she hopes to keep growing the closet and even bring this concept to other hospitals. 

“I think building these resources in places where kids get healthcare is just going to be a really cool thing,” she said.