EDMONTON – After battling through leukemia, six-year-old Halle Popowich was asked by the Children’s Wish Foundation what her greatest wish was. Halle’s answer surprised and touched many, and has brought the community together to see her wish become a reality.
Halle was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia in June 2012. She lived in the hospital for months; undergoing treatment, and finally, a life-saving bone marrow transplant.
The Children’s Wish Foundation approached Halle and her family and asked her if there was a wish the organization could grant her.
“I’d probably ask for something for me,” admits Noah Giordano, a boy who attends Halle’s school in St Albert. “I would have asked for a trip to Disney world or something, but that just amazes me what she asked for.”
Halle requested new playground equipment for her school.
“The piece that she was looking at was $20,000 so the Children’s Wish covers $11,000 and her family decided to match it,” explains Jennifer Doucette-Giordano, a J.J. Nearing Elementary School parent.
“The kids are so excited,” says Jan Maslyk, the school’s principal. “It was such a gift for her to do this and think of the playground… it was great, we really need it.”
“If Halle’s little dream comes true what would happen is we would have her big structure right over there. We would then have a couple little pieces here,” adds Maslyk pointing to the school yard. “Her dream to add to that is a rock kind of climbing rope thing, but that’s a pretty expensive piece.”
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Now, the community is helping the cause by raising money for the project and the construction work needed to install the playground equipment.
“Her mom came in one council meeting, and told us how Halle was doing and about her wish. And it just touched all of our hearts,” adds Doucette-Giordano.
She went home that night and told her husband about Halle and her wish.
“I told him about this wonderful little girl, and this selfless thing she asked for. Really, she could have asked for anything, and she asked for playground equipment for her school.”
“What can we do? We can’t excavate, we can’t afford to buy the equipment ourselves. And that’s when we decided: we can fundraise.”
Doucette-Giordano has four children of her own, all of whom were impressed with Halle’s wish and wanted to help in their own way.
“I gave $25 for the fundraiser from my piggy bank,” says eight-year-old Isabella. “I wanted her wish to come true. If I were her I’d just pick Disneyworld…I thought it was amazing that it’s not just for herself but for everyone.”
The fundraising campaign is now picking up steam. Along with the support of the Children’s Wish Foundation and the Popowich family, members of the school community – and even strangers – are joining the effort to make Halle’s playground wish become a reality.
“They meet her and right away they want to help her,” says Maslyk. “She’s an adorable child.”
“This little girl just beams with gentleness, kindness…She’s just a little ray of sunshine. You hear that, well Halle is that.”
People are contributing funds to cover the remaining funds needed to expand the playground area in a number of ways, including on Facebook, through the school, and in partnership with seven Save-On-Foods locations.
“It’s been an amazing and overwhelming response already,” says Sara Scott, Assistant Store Manager with Save-On-Foods.
“We have a program, corporately driven, that if you donate a thousand points, it’s worth a dollar, and then our company will match that dollar. So every thousand points is worth two dollars,” she explains.
“We had a customer donate 168,000 points just because they saw a poster and wanted to be involved.”
“When you see something that you can make better by something so insignificant like a thousand Save-On-More points, you want to be a part of that,” says Scott.
Given the huge response, the fundraiser organizers are hoping they’ll be able to surpass Halle’s original wish.
“What we would love to give her is more than what she’s asked for. We would like to give her her own little addition to the park with three or four pieces on it. That would be our dream. That would be an amazing little gift for her I think,” says Doucette-Giordano.
The group hopes to excavate an area large enough to allow for additional pieces of playground equipment, which can be installed now or in the future, depending on how much money is raised.
“I hope to see this whole area filled in with Halle’s pieces and just her playing on it with all the other kids, that’s the most important thing.”
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