Delaware fifth grader Blake Mompher poses for a photo in his Columbus Blue Jackets penalty box Halloween costume.

Courtesy | Megan Mompher

For years, Blake Mompher’s Halloween costumes have made waves in and around the Delaware community for their creativity despite challenging circumstances, and he’s back at it this month with a nod to his beloved Columbus Blue Jackets and fallen star Johnny Gaudreau.

A fifth grade student at Smith Elementary School, Mompher was born with spina bifida, which occurs when the neural tube doesn’t close completely during an unborn baby’s development, leading to incomplete development of the spine. The condition has forced Mompher into a wheelchair, but that hasn’t stopped him from stealing the show every fall.

This year, with the assistance of some crafty engineering from his father and even community help, Mompher is making the rounds at various trick-or-treat and Halloween-themed events as a Blue Jackets player sitting inside a penalty box constructed around his chair. The costume includes functional plexiglass doors at the front to simulate a real penalty box and various logos, including the Blue Jackets’ television partner and a clock showing the nature of the penalty being served.

Previous costumes have included the chair being turned into a Bobcat front loader, a school bus, a fire truck, McDonald’s french fries, a bowl of mac and cheese, the weather desk of a television meteorologist, and the Nationwide Arena Zamboni ice resurfacing machine.

While parents Aric and Megan Mompher have always found a way to make it work for Blake, the costumes don’t come together easily. This year’s costume was the hardest yet, they said, particularly due to recent changes to Blake’s chair that changed the specifications for the costume.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a year when Aric didn’t say, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to do this,’” Megan Mompher said. “And this year was probably the hardest. We had to enlist some help from the community, which was amazing.”

That help included neighbors donating cardboard for the project as well as a local gentleman who built the frame for the penalty box out of wood from his furniture business. The joint effort has allowed Blake the opportunity to do the one thing he loves more than anything this fall — represent the Columbus Blue Jackets.

“When we say he’s a fan, that’s an understatement,” Megan Mompher said. “He is a mega fan. It means so much to him. He can’t miss a game. Usually at night when they play, he has to go to bed. The first thing he does in the morning is watch a recap of the game because he needs to know what happened. He just loves it, and that’s what makes this costume really cool. He gets to be a part of it.”

Aric Mompher added, “I think mainly, his love for the Blue Jackets is because he spent so much time at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He’s had about 40 surgeries, and I think in November 2018 through March 2019, he was in a really bad place. He had a couple of surgeries, got really sick, and was in the intensive care unit. We at least had mom or I there 24 hours a day … In the middle of those nights, I would always take him down to the Blue Jackets room just to get him out of his room and just look at all the hockey stuff.”

As they often do, the Blue Jackets visited the hospital once during Blake’s stay, and that’s “all it took,” according to Megan Mompher. What began as an outlet for Blake to temporarily escape the brutal realities of his condition quickly turned into a deeply rooted passion.

Asked what he enjoys the most going to Blue Jackets games, Blake said without hesitation, “The cannon.” In fact, it was his original intention to turn his chair into the cannon this fall for Halloween, but his parents noted the logistics of such an endeavor weren’t feasible.

Instead, Blake was happy to pivot to the penalty box idea, which also allowed him to pay homage to one of his favorite players. Adorned on the front of the costume is a logo featuring the numbers of Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, who were killed by a drunk driver on Aug. 29 after his vehicle struck the Gaudreaus while bicycling on a road in New Jersey on the eve of their sister’s wedding.

Johnny Gaudreau was just 31 years old and entering the third year of a seven-year contract he signed with the Blue Jackets in 2022 to finalize the biggest free agent signing in franchise history.

The news of the Gaudreaus’ deaths stunned the entire hockey community and left everyone struggling to make sense of a senseless tragedy. In Delaware, it was up to Megan Mompher to deliver the sobering news to a son who, like so many his age, viewed Gaudreau as a larger-than-life figure.

“That morning, we were actually going to get his wheelchair worked on that day, so he was home with me,” she recalled. “I figured that was a good time to tell him since he wouldn’t be going to school and having to think about it. I just told him, ‘Blake, I have some bad news about the Blue Jackets.’ You could tell he knew something was wrong.”

Upon hearing the news, Megan Mompher remembers Blake going completely silent for a bit before no longer being able to deny the emotions building up inside him.

“He just said, ‘Mom, I think I’m going to cry now,’” Megan Mompher said. “I told him it was ok to cry, and we had to talk through it. For close to a month after, he didn’t want us to talk about it. He didn’t want to watch anything about Gaudreau. It just really bothered him. And now he’s starting to come around. In fact, just this morning, he was watching a video of Johnny Gaudreau’s goals on YouTube. But when you ask him why he was so upset, he’d just say he was angry at the driver. And I told him there were a lot of people who feel the same way.”

The qualities that made Johnny Gaudreau one of the game’s best for more than a decade were seemingly endless, but Blake said he enjoyed his scoring ability the most. Asked about the best way for the Blue Jackets to honor Johnny Gaudreau throughout this season, Blake suggested they do more of what made “Johnny Hockey” so much fun to watch. “Score,” Blake said.

As for why he wanted to be a penalty box this season, Blake said his favorite part of the games is when the Blue Jackets head to the power play.

While Blake’s costumes are large in scale, the sense of normalcy they provide stands even larger for a child who simply wants to have the costume everyone takes note of at school and in the neighborhood.

“He doesn’t really see himself as being different,” Aric Mompher said. “He just sees himself as another kid. So for him to get to dress up and have this costume, it’s just like any other kid who has a really cool costume they’re excited about and wants to show it off.”

Aric Mompher also hopes the costumes show other families with children in wheelchairs that there’s a lot of fun to be had by embracing the chairs.

“For me, it’s more so that I just want to inspire other parents of kids in wheelchairs that they can do the same thing,” he said. “I’m not an engineer. I’m not a homebuilder. I’m not a genius. I’m a land surveyor and know how to measure and make stuff fit. So I want to inspire other people to do it because if I can, they can, too.”

He added, “And it’s one thing with a kid in a wheelchair to put a costume on them and then put them in a wheelchair. You may or may not be able to tell what they’re supposed to be. In my mind, his wheelchair is part of him. That’s his mobility. So it’s just incorporating who he is and how he gets around. I just want other families to be able to look at that and do it, even if it’s not the prettiest. Speaking on behalf of Blake, as soon as you put that thing on, we see so much joy. I’d like to see that for other kids in chairs.”

Although Aric and Megan Mompher don’t want the costumes to be seen in any way as an attention grab, it’s undeniable Blake is always a big hit wherever he goes.

“We went last Saturday to watch the Blue Jackets play Minnesota,” Aric Mompher said. “We were walking the main concourse looking for some food, and we had multiple people stop us. He didn’t even have his costume on. And they’d just tell him, ‘I love what you’re doing, man.’ I’ve been told a number of times — and I’ve never been told this before — but they say, ‘Just keep doing what you’re doing. This is awesome and brings smiles to faces.’ One lady even asked him to sign her pants. She had a Sharpie and he signed her khaki pants. We were leaving church this morning and someone said, ‘Is that the kid who’s been on the news?’”

Of course, Blake’s reaction to all the attention is as pure as his love for the Blue Jackets.

“He just likes to see their smiles,” Megan Mompher said. “And I think he’s just really proud of the costume because he can represent the Blue Jackets. It makes him feel like he’s part of the team.”

And while the costume is sure to draw rave reviews this Halloween season, for Blake, it’s a means to an end just like every other child in a costume going door to door.

“Candy and chocolate,” Blake said emphatically when asked what he’s most looking forward to about wearing this costume for Delaware’s trick-or-treat night.

Reach Dillon Davis at 740-413-0904. Follow him on X @DillonDavis56.