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A woman sewing some clothes

Not All Heroes Wear Capes – Comcast Employee, Barbara Casados, Taps into a Unique Superpower with the Help of a Sewing Machine

2 years ago

How much does it take to put a smile on a child’s face? For 25,000 children, it takes 10 years, 50 volunteers, and 50,000 yards of material. It takes 25,000 hours of sewing, bent over, running material through a sewing machine, to make 25,000 capes.

All of these numbers were stitched together by one woman, Barbara Casados, a mother of three. She is Comcast Business’ Marketing Specialist by day, but by night, she is a sewing machine. Barbara may not be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound nor dodge bullets with magic wrist cuffs, but she tapped into a unique superpower – sewing capes for children who battle more than villains, they battle life threatening illnesses.

This is Barbara’s origin story and how Capes4Heroes was born. The non-profit organization makes personalized capes for children with disabilities and/or life threatening illnesses. Barbara’s inspiration? Her son Maddox.

In 2008, Maddox was two-years-old when he refused to get dressed in the morning. Every day, Barbara tried to come up with creative ways to convince Maddox to get dressed. She realized that letting her son wear a cape brought out the superhero within him. He agreed to get dressed and go to school every morning if he was able to wear his cape. When Maddox’s special needs school noticed the power of his superhero cape, they couldn’t be more excited. They asked Barbara if she would make capes for other special needs students in the school so they could use them to convince the students to get things done.

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After the cape making began, Barbara realized that this was the beginning of something huge. She continued to make capes for friends, family, schools, and hospitals. The story behind these capes spread so quickly that she was contacted by the San Francisco 49ers, Vernon Davis, and the San Jose Sharks to help host events for children at local hospitals.

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Sharks’ defenseman, Paul Martin, photographed with hospital patient and her mother after receiving her cape.

Q: Do you have a favorite memory from Capes4Heroes?

A: “My favorite memory will always be the first event I ever did at Stanford Ronald McDonald House where we handed out nearly all the capes before this adorable princess who was battling brain cancer walked in. She was just under 2 years old and wanted a cape so bad. She had the most beautiful bald head and frosting all over her face. She had just come back from the hospital with her sister. Since we didn’t have any more capes in her size we gave her a much larger one so that she at least had something. We told her mom we would go home and make her one that night and ship it overnight to her. Her family didn’t care at all, they said the large one was just fine because it brought her a smile and that is all that matters.”

“This family made a huge impact on me, not only that night but every night since then. I did in fact go home and make her a sparkly pink cape and gave it to her the next day, and made her older sister a purple matching one. This was 7 years ago and Audrey is cancer free and her family is just as happy today as they were that day way back then.”

Audrey wearing the cape she received at two years old.

Q: What challenges do you face while working full time and running your own organization at the same time?

A: “I am beyond grateful for the love of my family. My parents and sister are continuously at my house either taking care of my boys, helping to fix things, are jumping in to help me manage Capes4Heroes. With that being said, my biggest challenge is accomplishing everything on my to-do list. Each night I lay down in bed and think about all the things I had hoped to accomplish that day but didn’t. I do realize I can’t do everything on my own which is why I am so lucky to have the most incredible volunteers that keep Capes4Heroes going while I am working at Comcast. I also couldn’t continue keeping Capes4Heroes moving forward without the support from my incredible Comcast family.”

Q: How does someone receive a cape from Capes4Heroes?

A: “Process 1: Nominate a hero on our website (you can nominate any child dealing with a life threatening illness, disability or life struggle to receive a free custom superhero cape).  Once that is done, the child automatically gets added to our sponsorship waiting list. For every $30 donation Capes4Heroes receives a child from our waiting list gets a superhero cape shipped to them from their sponsor. In addition to the cape, the child also receives a superhero certificate with the sponsors name on it. The sponsor will receive an email with basic information about the child they are sponsoring such as the age, gender and diagnosis. Many of the families who receive capes post a photo of their child in their cape on the Capes4Heroes Facebook page. We encourage people who have donated money to follow us online and see the incredible photos and testimonials of the children they have brought a smile to. In addition to the child dealing with the illness or disability, the siblings also receive capes.

Process 2: Hospital visit. Individuals/sporting teams/and Corporations will sponsor an entire hospital (150-300 children).  This involves Capes4Heroes to pre-make hundreds of capes prior to the event in various sizes, colors, etc. When we are onsite at the hospital our seamstresses set up sewing machines and every single child (including siblings) will get to pick out their favorite cape and a seamstress onsite will sew their initial onto the cape. The corporation or sporting team that has sponsored the event will also be onsite helping the children pick out their favorite cape and helping the Capes4Heroes team get the capes to all the children.”

It’s been ten years since Barbara established Capes4Heroes. Barbara and her volunteers have helped change the lives of over 25,000 children and Barbara’s three sons continue to help her every step of the way.

“As long as there are children who could benefit from the joy and happiness a cape provides them, then we will find the resources to make it happen.”
Comcast is a platinum sponsor of Capes4Heroes, donating at least $10,000 to the organization.

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San Jose Sharks players Paul Martin, Chris Tierney, Ben Smith, and former ice hockey player Paul Martin hosting an event with Capes4Heroes.

For more information on Capes4Heroes and how to donate or become a volunteer, visit https://comca.st/2Tcln0Z.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Public Safety Power Shutoff

An Xfinity technician examines a forest

Preparing for PSPS Events

Many of us are looking forward to a return to some form of normalcy as we work to rebuild and recover from the public health crisis. Californians are clever, resilient and optimistic people and we will find joy in every season no matter what happens.

While this year will probably feel very different, one thing that will, unfortunately, remain consistent is the threat of wildfires. June 1 was the official start of fire season and at Comcast we are working tirelessly to ensure we continue to serve our customers.

Concurrent with fire season, in many parts of California, we anticipate planned power outages – called Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) – during this time, which runs from June through November. When gusty winds and dry conditions are forecasted, combined with a heightened fire risk, electricity providers pre-emptively turn off the power to protect the public.

Comcast’s Internet, TV and landline telephone services for homes and businesses require commercial power to operate. During a PSPS event, these Comcast services may stop functioning within hours after the commercial power is shut off. Mobile phone service may also be affected by a PSPS event.

Comcast understands this disruption to services is frustrating and has a major impact on people’s lives and businesses. The safety of our communities and employees is our utmost priority and Comcast takes care during PSPS events to ensure public safety.

Comcast also takes care during PSPS events to ensure we’re keeping our customers informed. We’ve sent a letter and an email to our customers with important information about how to keep informed during wildfire season.

You may also see public service announcements on your local news channel reminding you how these power outages may affect your services.

Here are a few things you can do now to be prepared:

  • Confirm your contact information at xfinity.com/myaccount—We will use this information to contact you if we expect a service disruption caused by a planned power outage. You can also use My Account to check if your service has been restored.
  • Comcast Business customers can check their My Account app or the Comcast Business Status Center to get information and valuable updates.
  • Download your favorite shows and movies for offline viewing—With the Xfinity Stream app, you can watch shows and movies offline in case you lose power.
  • Download the Xfinity Connect App to receive Xfinity Voice calls via your mobile phone—Xfinity Voice customers can make and receive calls with their Xfinity phone number using their mobile phone.
  • Visit the Comcast California Blog where we will post information, updates and answers to commonly asked questions. On the blog, we’ve launched a special PSPS web page where you can get additional information.
  • Follow us on Twitter — our handle is @ComcastCA and we regularly post valuable updates.

Even if power is off, Comcast’s team never stops working for you. From our family to yours, we hope you remain safe.

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