Hero capes for young patients at Kaiser Permanente, thanks to Capes4Heroes & SJSharks

San Jose Sharks hockey forward Chris Tierney may be a tough man on the ice, but he was soft as cotton giving 14-month-old Evelyn a “hero cape” at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara the other day.

“Aww, she wants the purple one. That’s a winner,” cooed Tierney, as Evelyn gurgled in delight over the colorful cape.

Tierney, forward Micheal Haley, and defenseman Paul Martin were visiting the hospital’s advanced care pediatrics unit, distributing handmade capes from “Capes4Heroes” to hospitalized children.

“We like to spend some time with them, show the children we care about them,” said Paul Martin, who is a regular Sharks visitor to Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara, as part of the Sharks Foundation community outreach. “The capes make them feel like Super Heroes for the day, put smiles on their faces, hopefully it goes a long way for them.”

The capes are handmade by volunteers working with Barbara Casados, an East Bay mom who founded “Capes4Heroes” almost nine years ago. She says it all started with a bribe.

“My son Maddox, who’s autistic, refused to get up and get dressed in the morning for special needs school without fashioning a cape over his shoulders,” says Casados. “Mornings were dreadful so I finally gave up and made a cape for him and the morning hassles stopped.”

Soon, all of Maddox’s classmates wanted capes like his, so Barbara went back to her sewing machine. Then a hospital wanted “hero capes” for cancer patients. Now, 20,000 capes later, Barbara and her team of seamstresses and other volunteers set up their sewing machines at medical centers on the East Coast and Bay area delivering handmade hero capes to hospitalized children.

“It means a lot to the children here at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara,” says Wendy Celaya, Child Life Specialist in the pediatrics unit. “The capes imply strength, courage and to always be resilient no matter what you’re facing.”

The capes are bright, with stars and geometric “power figures” on colorful fabric. Barbara and her volunteers bring many sizes, from the smallest child to teenagers. Seamstresses behind a bank of sewing machines can personalize the capes in an instant. The Sharks players had “custom” capes with team logos.

“You know it makes you feel pretty good,” said 12-year-old Jaqui Goodin, a patient. “It makes you feel that people care, that you’re important.”