On a visit to Lake Parker Park in Lakeland a few Saturday’s ago Everyday Hero host Bill Murphy came upon pirates, princesses, pixies, and more. 

It was the Cure SMA, which stands for spinal muscular atrophy, 8th Annual Walk-N-Roll. 

And mixed in this day of fun and fund raising were some superheroes!  Superhero volunteers with an organization called the M.U.C.H. Foundation.

A few years ago ‘Batman’, also known as M.U.C.H. founder Zachary Hurst, saw people visiting kids in hospitals and saw the joy that it brought them.

“And I said I’d like to do that,” Hurst said.  “It would bring a smile to their faces.  It would be something nice to do. That’s all it was.  Just something nice to do.  And I fell in love with it.  Fell in love with being able to visit these children.  Visit these families, seeing the parents faces light up.”

And so the idea was born for superheroes to visit seriously ill children.  A bit more than a year and a half and 200 volunteers later,  kids in hospitals, special events, or anywhere else a superhero or two is needed they’ll be there.

“We just simply go in and we give them one night where the child is able to see that their heroes took a night off from adventuring, took a night off from the crime fighting because that little boy or girl was so important we just had to go and see them,” Hurst said.

However, the much foundation is much more than superhero visits.

On its website and facebook page you learn about the non-profits hospital and enhanced prosthesis and wheelchair divisions offering financial aid and so much more to children and their families. 

And for Hurst and his volunteers the motivation for all they do can be simply summed up.

“I think that we all have a job to do.  We all have a purpose in life and I think that it’s our job to do it,” Hurst said.