Huge shout out to all the paramedics for the amazing work that you do! You are real life super heroes. My 2 year old son is your biggest fan and he NEEDED to dress up like you for his Halloween costume. We hope this brings you a smile! For as long as he can remember, my little guy has been crazy about ambulances and paramedics. He thinks that they are awesome, and rightly so!!!! He loves to watch ambulance videos on YouTube, and every night before bed we read a fantastic book called “Ambulance in Action”. It’s all about a paramedic meerkat and how she helps out when there’s an emergency. He’s been asking to “be a ambulance” for months, so I figured with some hard work and creativity, I could make his dream come true.
I started by asking a close friend (who is a paramedic) for pictures of her uniform. Then I set out to recreate it in as much detail as possible. I made individual patches, and painted logos for the patches, shirt, and hat. Then I added reflective stripes that I took apart from some of my husbands old safety gear.
Once the uniform was under way, I had to figure out how to construct an ambulance out of cardboard. It took a few failed attempts, but then I nailed it!!! Once the construction was complete, I wrapped it in white paper and then painted the body and windows. I had taken a picture of an ambulance from our town and I wanted our ambulance to represent that. I printed out logos and a front grille to make it as realistic as I could. I used some reflective tape to trim it out and added real working lights, much to the delight of my son! I traced them and used a craft knife to cut out the cardboard so that I could sink the lights into the frame and make sure that they didn’t stick out too far. All of the red lights flash off and on, and the white lights are constant. I also added a bike bell that he can ring to act as the siren. He is over the moon excited about his costume and I couldn’t be prouder of how it turned out! I even turned a plain red lunch kit into a first-aid bag for him to use to collect candy when we went out to trick-or-treat.
His costume was a huge hit! I sent a picture to a Facebook page for paramedics and it got so many likes, shares, and positive comments. When we went out, it was so awesome seeing the reactions from other kids and parents. Everyone was so excited to see it. It was a bit bulky and made it tough for my little guy to get around but he was a real trooper and refused to take it off. He loved it so much! It was a lot of effort, but totally worth it.