Window Cleaners Are New Craze In Super Heroes

Grime fighter.

Superheroes wash windows at Lurie Children’s Hospital: Super heroes make spirits fly for some children in the hospital — you could call them “grime fighters!” Window washers from Corporate Cleaning Services showed up at Lurie Children’s Hospital dressed as Captain America, Batman, and Spider-Man. The kids loved it, and so did the workers. They’d never done this before but thought it would be a great way to bring some joy to the kids. The three superheroes cleaned windows on the 11th and 12th floors, ending with the Crown Sky Garden. Superhero window washers have also been spotted at children’s hospitals in Pittsburgh, Memphis and other cities. Click the pictures to enlarge.

Latino Heroes: Window Washers and Super Heroes All in One: When you ask Chicagoans Roberto Duran, Pedro Castro and Alejandro Pantoja what they do for a living be prepared for an answer that will put a smile on your face. Not only are these men window washers, they are also Super Heroes especially to the sick children at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital located in downtown Chicago.  The three men are employed by Corporate Cleaning Services, Chicago’s largest all-union window washing company.  When called to hero duty they don super hero suits and scale the massive structure, squeegee in hand. You would think just scaling the massive skyscraper building would be enough to be considered a hero.

Spider-Man joined forces with High-Rise Window Cleaning to take on the force of evil known as dirty windows, and brought some much-needed smiles to sick children in the process.

Afterwards, he scaled over to the windows of several patients who were too sick to join the others in the playroom.

After rappelling down the roof, the webbed hero began his grime-fighting duties by cleaning the windows outside a kid-filled playroom on the 8th floor of the hospital.

Rob Powers , who has worked at High-Rise Window Cleaning for more than 10 years, will go back to being a mild-mannered window cleaner tomorrow, but says the smiles he brought to St. Joseph's Children's Hospital today is something he'll never forget.

Spider Man swoops in to visit kids in St. Joseph's Children's Hospital: Tampa, Florida -- For a dozen of Tampa Bay's sickest children, something super was about to swoop in. Eight stories up Thursday, kids from St. Joseph's Children's Hospital -- used to visits from doctor after doctor and nurse after nurse -- got to marvel at their friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. In his red-and-blue suit, the superhero rappelled down from the main hospital's roof and smiled as he lowered himself to a ledge right outside a big playroom window. Smiling back were kids like Nicholas, who just got out of ICU for the first time in days. And Cedric, who grabbed a marker to make a sign -- "GO SPIDERMAN!" 

Shelia Keller arranged to have this seemingly ordinary, mild-mannered man with a window washing business show off his secret super power -- the power to help these kids smile. "It changes the healing environment," said Keller, a manager on the hospital's Environmental Services team. "Being happy, smiling, and laughing is such a healing thing for our families." Spider-Man wouldn't reveal his true identity to us. He would say he's originally from Connecticut and has been washing windows for 29 years. "And I've been called Spider-Man for almost 29 years, even before I put the suit on. Just 'cause people see me rappelling down, they're like, 'Wow, that's cool!'" the superhero said.

Spider-Man's Uncle Ben told him, "With great power comes great responsibility." His power is having the guts to work high on a ledge with a smile so big it practically shows through his suit. His responsibility, he says, is to honor the real heroes -- the truly brave children, their families, and the people who care for them. "It's worth it," he said. "They're worth it, seeing their smiles."

Clearwater Spider-Man Featured On NBC Nightly News: Jon Powers of Clearwater, a window washer who dresses up as Spider-Man, is in the national spotlight for good deeds. It turns out that Spider-Man lives in Clearwater. If you've driven past All Children's Hospital in St. Pete, you might have noticed Spider-Man crawling along the building's windows. Sorry to bust Spider-Man's identity, but this isn't Peter Parker, but he is sure a hero. NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams featured on Monday night's broadcast Spider-Man, who is Jon Powers of Clearwater, a window washer of High Rise Window Cleaning who uses ingenuity and bravery and maybe even some Spidey senses.

The piece was part of the Making a Difference features which showcases remarkable deeds people do out of kindness. "I make kids smile," Powers told NBC. "They make me smile." Powers is a part of a team of other window washers, who have teamed up as a Justice League of sorts, mixed with The Avengers, featuring Captain America, Superman and Batman taking to the windows at All Children's Hospitals in St. Pete, Fort Myers and other children's hospitals around the country, NBC reported.

"When they see me work with the suction cup, you can actually go along the building and get a lot of windows," Powers told NBC in its Web-only extra. "That's what gives the illusion of Spiderman when moving around, it looks like we're just grabbing on." Holly Ott, a Childlife Care Coordinator for the hospital, told NBC that the kids love Spider-Man. "It's not everyday you see an iconic legend like Spider-Man climbing up your window," Ott told NBC.

Super heroes brighten sick kids' days: If one clings to the side of a building for a living, why not let an alter ego make a child's day? At All-Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla. - which cares for more than 200 kids -everything changed one day when superheroes came from the sky to chase away the fear and sadness that come with being sick. "It was really cool and exciting." Kaiden DeGroat, 7, who loves Spiderman, was there that day for treatment, and suddenly felt a whole lot better seeing his hero in person. "Usually you only see him in movies, but seeing him in real life is just really cool!" he exclaimed. 

At children's hospitals around the country, they start at the roof and rappel the walls. Window washers dressed as super-heroes -doing their part to make kids feel better. In Memphis, it was two Spidermen and Captain America. In Charlotte, there were four of them. In Ft. Myers, it was a dynamic trio... and at Christmas time, Santa and his elves came to clean, and to wave at the kids inside. 

For the children it was magic...and very good medicine. "Absolutely, any time we have the opportunity to help kids feel more positive, it really benefits their healing," said Childlife Clinical Coordinator Holly Ott. When asked why he was glad he did it, Window Washer answered: "'Cause I know I made their day a little better, and they made my day a little better." Powers, of High-Rise Window Cleaning in Clearwater, Fla., returned to his regular clothes after his day in costume. He will never forget the girl without hair who peered back at him through her hospital window. "She just had the biggest smile ever when I came down that wall and tapped on the window. That's the best part of the day, right there," he said. Superheroes - all of them - in real life.

DES MOINES — Quad-City Times reporters and photographers won three first-place awards for their work Friday from the Iowa Associated Press Managing Editors organization. Staff members also won two first-place awards in the Iowa Newspaper Association Better Newspaper Contests. Photographer Larry Fisher won first place in business photos for “Spider-Man at work,” a set of photos of a window washer dressed as Spider-Man.

See more here, here & here. 

Social media is tangled up in Spider-Man's web as a tiny version of the superhero surprised President Obama at the White House. In the now-viral image, a small boy dressed as Spider-Man is seen slinging an imaginary web in President Obama's direction. During the "invasion" Obama threw his hands in the air and winced back as the miniature Spidey stared him down.