Man dresses up as Spider-Man to bring smiles to neighborhood kids during the pandemic

Mike Justman has found a way to uplift his community during the coronavirus pandemic by dressing up as Spider-Man.

Video Transcript

MIKE JUSTMAN: My name is Mike Justman. I live in New Berlin, Wisconsin. And I am Spider-Man.

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I'm a soccer coach. And one of the girls on my daughter's soccer team, her little brother was during two. And in our area that we live in in New Berlin, there was a lot of car parades that are kind of starting then. And my wife and I were writing up some signs. And I said, wouldn't it be kind of cool if I stepped up a little bit and dressed as Spider-Man? And she's like, yeah, that'd be a cool idea.

My daughter and I were Spider-Man, and she was Spider Gwen from the "Into the Spider-verse" movie. And I just happened to have it. You know what? I should get some more use out of this costume. Kids love it. They recognize him. I like Spider-Man. It's been fun.

I have been visiting children on their birthdays, waving to kids outside playing in yards. They've been doing home schooling all day. They could really use a pick me up.

We arrive at some of the houses on top of cars. And kids freak out because they're like, I can't believe he's here. And he's on top of the car. So I'll jump off the car, and I'll land in a superhero pose. And they're like, oh, my gosh, this is really him! And there was kids dressed up as Spider-Man, or they were dressing as some of the villains.

It's been a lot of fun, and I'm enjoying every second of it. If I can make a kid smile and they get excited to see Spider-Man, it warms my heart. I love it.

We're all over it. We're-- haven't just been in our community. We've been all these other little towns and cities. We've been around Milwaukee as well. And it's definitely gotten bigger than we ever thought it was gonna be.

The parents love it. They tell other parents like, hey, guess what? Spider-Man came to visit my son. Oh, cool. He should come out this way and visit my daughter. And they just keep spreading it around, and they love it. They get excited too. It's been great.

We partnered up with this company in our area called Jester Fun Entertainment. They make balloon displays for birthdays. And during this pandemic, they're not doing a lot of birthdays right now. So what we've been doing is people who donate us money, we'll go and turn around and buy balloons from them. And we'll go bring those balloons to kids for their birthday.

The coolest part for me is that I get to make a difference in these kids lives. Me coming in to visit them, which they don't know it's gonna happen-- any kind of difference I can make that's positive is always important to me. I hope that as a superhero and a parent that I hope other people are thinking of ways to be proactive and productive and making their community better. Stay positive, stay safe, and stay super.