Neighborhood Holds Halloween Early For Young Boy Needing Surgery

People may dress up as superheroes each year for Halloween, but one neighborhood in Edwardsville, Illinois stepped up to be real-life heroes for a young boy.

Halloween is four-year-old Sonny Mead's favorite holiday, but due to a scheduled surgery he was going to have to miss out on the festivities. Miss out, that is, until the Goshen Meadows neighborhood heard about his situation.

"He wasn't going to be able to trick-or-treat, and I just, as a mom, could not let that happen," family friend Amanda Richert told Fox 2 St. Louis.

So, to let Sonny celebrate, the residents of Goshen Meadows hosted their holiday celebration a week early. Richert got more than 20 houses in the neighborhood to help, letting trick-or-treaters come by a week early so that Sonny could participate. The Edwardsville Fire Department even gave Sonny a fire truck escort to the event, which he attended dressed as his favorite superhero -- Superman.

"We let him pick his costume, and up until today he was going to be Spiderman, and then he decided that he wanted to be Superman because he wants superpowers," his mother, Jackie Mead, said.

Sonny has a condition called craniosynostosis. It's a birth defect that causes one or more of the skull's fibrous joints to close before the brain has fully formed. He was diagnosed in February 2015 and soon after had surgery to remove bones to allow his brain to grow. The removed bones were supposed to grow back by age three, but Sonny's never did requiring him to undergo surgery to have his skull rebuilt. Sonny will be in recovering for two to six months post-surgery, hence the need for a special Halloween.

And that special Halloween brought smiles from Sonny for every house he visited.

"He's never met a stranger," his father Sam Mead said. "He's just a fun-loving kid. He brings a lot of joy to our lives."