MELROSE PARK, Ill. — Anthony Alfano has done it again.
The 13-year-old boy’s Halloween costume for 2022 marks another feather in his cap for creative, wheelchair-accessible costumes that have wowed revelers in his Chicago-suburb hometown of Melrose Park for years, before gaining viral social media fame in recent outings, WLS-TV reported.
And this year will not disappoint, with Anthony, who has cerebral palsy, ready to hit the streets in a custom-made get-up inspired by the Steven Spielberg’s 1985 adventure classic, “The Goonies.”
This year’s costume will be the “Bone Organ,” which became integral to the flick’s plot and embodied its theme of booby traps supposedly left by pirates several centuries earlier. The traps – such as the organ that saw the Earth literally move from under its feet anytime a wrong chord was played – were installed to safeguard the treasure rumored to be hidden somewhere in the coastal town the childhood friends are being forced to vacate to make room for a country club.
Anthony’s father, Tony Alfano, began working on his son’s costume weeks ago, “crafting the bones from bamboo and the organ keys from plastic skeleton fingers,” WLS reported.
>> Need something to lift your spirits? Read more uplifting news
According to Illinois Haunted Houses, past costumes worn by Anthony have included a hysterical snapshot from the closing scene of Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice” as well as Blue Man Group. (See photos here.)
Meanwhile, WLS counted Cameron from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and Zoltaire from 1988′s “Big,” starring Tom Hanks, among Anthony’s most popular costumes to date.
And Tony Alfano minced no words when asked what makes the elaborate costumes worth the trouble.
“Like, (Anthony’s) the one that every time I see him smile, it’s like, I’ve gotta do it again,” he told the TV station, adding, “We just want to keep doing it because it keeps filling us up and keeps moving us forward.”