These characters of fantasy are not any type of actor, but rather everyday people showing their love and passion for a piece of media. As some of them use their passion for a show, video, or game they enjoy bringing joy to others.

A group of cosplayers, people who dress up in costume to resemble a character, has been volunteering their time to go to hospitals and events in character to bring joy and awareness to the causes.

At Duluth’s first Teeb Con, many cosplayers shared their stories and experiences with us on how they take this opportunity to help others. One of those cosplayers, was a chaplain for the sheriff’s department. as many of these cosplayers’ have normal day jobs.

“Cosplaying can be fun, but a lot of us use this as an opportunity to volunteer and work for different charities like Make-A-Wish, from the different Children’s Hospital, and just bring joy and raise money for these great causes.”

“When we walk into a room and we just see their entire life, their whole life just flashing their eyes and they just have the biggest smile on the road, it helps them forget about the struggles that they’re facing today, and just helps them remove themselves from whatever stress they have.”

MNSWCA.org hosted a similar event in the spring of 2024, called the Frozen Force. A small event themed around Star Wars that was raising money for a local clinic. One of the cosplayers told us about her experience during that event.

“And we raised like $5,000 or something for the clinic. So yeah, that’s kind of my favorite. It’s just finding good causes that I can like just be there to support and bring in more energy and more excitement.”

Costume for a Cause

As cosplayers often get together at conventions, some have also been known to don their capes to inspire and support children. Down in the Twin cities, a non-profit organization gathers together to have cosplayers visit terminally ill children in the hospital. Tyson Lietz, a restaurant tour by day and a professional cosplayer by night, expressed the causes desire to help and how it affects them as cosplayers.

“So specifically, it’s a group called Costumes for a Cause. And what Costumes for a Cause does is we do all sorts of local events in and around the Twin Cities. And then we work very closely with the children’s hospital as well as Make a Wish Foundation. So, for very sick children, for terminally ill children, they’ll wish to meet either Superman or Spiderman, that kind of things. And then we will show up to birthday parties or events for these kids in character so that they can meet their heroes.”

“It is a very rare occasion that I don’t leave one of these events and you kind of have to take a minute to decompress and just sort of cry because it really is deeply, deeply emotional in the most beautiful way.”