The HallieStrong Foundation

We've been quite quiet on here lately, for the very best reason! We are overwhelmed with gratitude and so excited to announce that we've grown our family by ten perfect fingers and ten perfect toes of little girl sweetness 💕💕 Her arrival was the surprise of a lifetime, an answer to so many prayers and the living proof of the power of hope. We are all so in love and know Hallie is shining down on all of us!

As we continue to get settled into this new (sweet) life, we are going to take a short pause on fulfilling care packages. We'll be back in August, when we'll also be talking Socktober, because believe it or not, that's right around the corner! Thanks for your grace in this exciting new time for us and we will see you soon!

It's Bethany's birthday today! We hope it's a day filled with so much love and all the Hallie girl orange 🧡 Happy Birthday Bethany!

This is a hard one! The world lost the brightest, most uplifting and beautiful soul earlier this week. Liz wrote the book on what it meant to fight cancer with indescribable grace and courage. She dubbed her tribe of support as Team Sunshine and she truly was that ray of positivity, amidst the most impossible and unfair of circumstances, that inspired us all.

Liz was nominated for a care package way back in 2019 and quickly became one of our biggest supporters and advocates. She held legendary Socktober fundraisers for us through Pauly's Pies, she was always donating fun socks she'd find and nominating her newly diagnosed cancer sisters. She was always looking for ways to help spread our Hallie's story! Just this past fall, she was our honored guest at our first gala, which meant the world to me. She created a truly touching video for the gala, about what HallieStrong meant to her. I'll treasure it forever now! I admired everything about Liz and I was lucky to count her as a friend. She will be so deeply missed.

Stuart Scott said it best that you beat cancer by how you live, why you live and in the manner in which you live. Liz, you did it best! You beat it. You won! Truly well done, my friend. Your legacy will live on and we will make sure play a part in that.

Our deepest condolences go out to her husband, her mom and the many, many people who loved her so deeply.

🧡

Yesterday marked the day we should've been celebrating Hallie's 7th birthday. 7 seems so old! Those seven years have felt like both a lifetime and a blink of an eye. The higher that number gets, the more unfair it feels with every added moment and milestone missed. Seeing the joy and wonder for life in our two boys now, watching them gravitate to the things they love and seeing their hilarious personalities unfold is both my greatest joy every day and my biggest ache that we'll never get that with Hallie. I spend so much time wondering who she'd be today! What her birthday theme would've been. How much fun we would've had watching basketball all weekend together.

Pulling me out of the depth of that ache though was Hallie's Day of Hope 🧡 What an incredible honor it was to witness so much love (and incredible creativity!) in memory of our little girl. We continued to get messages and pictures of acts of kindness being done all weekend. The QR code on those tags? They were scanned quite literally across the entire US. From Seattle to Fort Myers, Washington DC to Anchorage, Birmingham to Sioux Falls. And everywhere in between. In the moments where the emotions as Hallie's mom were hitting the hardest this weekend, I thought about what each recipient must've felt and how much joy they must've found. I know first hand as I was a recipient this year! I came home to the sweetest bouquet of flowers and note of encouragement on my front porch. Beauty from the ashes feeling that joy and knowing so many people felt that same, in Hallie's memory. You all truly made her day our greatest rusty lining yet.

Thank you for honoring her, thank you for making the day a little easier for our hearts and thank you for keeping her legacy alive! We are forever grateful for this incredible HallieStrong community 🧡

Speechless 🧡 You all are amazing. We are still very much processing all the love and pouring through all the posts, texts and messages. A much more articulate thank you is coming but for now, please know how much every single act of kindness meant to us. You'll never know how grateful we are for each of you keeping our girl's story alive ✨

There are two sets of superheroes in every cancer story - the patients and families so bravely fighting & the clinical teams (doctors, nurses and child life specialists) that take such incredible care of their bodies, hearts and minds. Today we got the honor to treat both at ! For you, Hallie girl! 🧡

It's Hallie's big day! In honor of what should've been her 7th birthday this week, help us celebrate her by doing something kind for someone today! Feel free to use either of the images as tags to attach to your act of kindness to help spread her story 🧡

Wed LOVES to see your acts of kindness! Tag us or use

Today's all for you, Hallie girl!

Picked up a few treats from Becky the Bakester that'll play a part in one of our acts of kindness tomorrow! 🎉 We are at peak anticipation right now!

It's Hallie's big week! Thursday, 3/28 is the big day, our 4th Annual Hallie's Day of Hope!

Feel free to screenshot/print either one of these images to attach to your act of kindness to help spread Hallie's story and maybe even start a pay-it-forward movement of kindness! 🧡

If you're new to HallieStrong, Hallie would've been 7 this week. We celebrate her memory by partaking in acts of kindness and we'd love for you to join in!

Hallie's Day of Hope is happening •one• week from today! What is ? Hallie would've been 7 this year and we mark her big day by asking everyone to do acts of kindness in her memory. We'd love for you to join in!

We'll post a tag soon that you can print and attach to your act of kindness to help share Hallie's story and who knows, maybe even start a pay-it-forward chain of kindness! 🧡

Look at all that orange! 🧡 Today is the last day to request your tags here: www.halliestrong.org/halliesdayofhope2024

For those of you who have already requested your tags, we've been busy stuffing envelopes all week! Keep your eyes open for that Hallie orange to hit your mailbox sometime next week! 13 days until the big day!!

This is wild! In the absolute best way 🧡 In the past 48 hours, almost 500 MORE tags have been spoken for, bringing the total to over 1,000 🤯 Across 37 states & Ontario. We are beside ourselves thinking about how magical is going to be! We have •never• looked forward to this day, and y'all have turned that narrative upside down!

That said - we only have about ~280 tags pre-printed tags left that are up for grabs! Request yours now by clicking the link and filling out the form: www.halliestrong.org/halliesdayofhope2024 If we do run out, we will have a printable version.

Big, big thanks all. Beauty from ashes 🧡

Last chance to get your tags! They're designed to attach to your act of kindness to help spread Hallie's story & maybe even start a pay-it-forward movement 🧡

Link to request yours is here: www.halliestrong.org/halliesdayofhope Shipping is on us! The deadline to order is •this Friday•

Hallie's Day of Hope is Thursday, March 28th!

Here's to the amazing, most badass ladies of ! 🧡

We didn't set out with this goal but it has sure taken off! There will now be people participating in Hallie's Day of Hope in half the country - we've already had over 600 tags requested!

You have just over a week left to request yours! Deadline is Friday, March 15th. Here's the link to request (we ship them for free): www.halliestrong.org/halliesdayofhope

New to HallieStrong? Hallie would've been 7 this March. We mark the day with Hallie's Day of Hope, where we ask everyone to do something kind in her memory 🧡 Note that because of Easter, we are celebrating on Thursday, March 28th this year!

You've taken the map international! Ontario has been marked, and 5 more states, making it 19 total so far! It's so cool to think about Hallie's story being all over like that & how far these acts of kindness will be stretching!

You can request your tags by filling out the form here: www.halliestrong.org/halliesdayofhope2024. Deadline is March 15th!

If you're new to HallieStrong, Hallie would've been 7 this March. We mark her day with our annual Hallie's Day of Hope where we do kind things for others in her memory. If you'd like tags to attach to your act of kindness to help spread her story, request them by following the instructions above! We ship them for free 🧡

It's been less than 24 hours and we've already had people in •14• different states request tags for Hallie's Day of Hope! How cool is that?! 🥹

Here's the link to request your tags - we ship them for free! www.halliestrong.org/halliesdayofhope2024

Our favorite day of the year is just over a month away! Save the date, 3.28.24, for our 4th Annual Hallie's Day of Hope!

Back by popular demand, we'll be shipping out tags to attach to your act of kindness to help spread Hallie's story. The form to request yours is now live here: www.halliestrong.org/halliesdayofhope2024 Deadline to request those is March 15th. We ship them for free!

What is Hallie's Day of Hope?
Hallie would've been seven this March and to honor her, we spend the day doing kind things for others in her memory. We would love for you to join us this year! Make sure you're following us the day of too, it is always the most inspirational day for our girl 🧡

Walked out of that gym yesterday with a ton of socks and a Laker win! Thank you to everyone who donated and big, big thanks to for their incredible support of our foundation every year! 💙🤍

Basketball & a sock drive, what's a better way to spend a Ssturday afternoon?! We'd love to have you join us to help cheer on the Lakers! Tip off is 4pm CST.

Big thanks to for always being such big supporters of our mission! 💙🤍

Signed a big contract yesterday! 👀 ✨💃🏼 Official announcement coming soon but local followers, any guesses where we are?!

We did it! 🥹 A few times over. AND we were able to send a sizable gift card to help offset hospital living, thanks to all of YOU and your inspiring generosity! 🧡

Even better news, Nova’s mom shared with us last night that she is on a string of days of a rising ANC and healing trend. There’s nothing better than that!

HallieStrong community, thank you so much for showing up big for this family yesterday. We are amazed, so proud and not at all surprised by your generosity.

And to the Benson family, we hope this restores a little magic to your holiday season and reminds you that there are so many people cheering you all on! Cancer never wins. 🥹

It’s ! Our day to show up big for Nova and her sweet family. Nova was diagnosed with AML this year at just two years old.

Today, we want to CLEAR their family’s Christmas wishlist! You can shop that list here: https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/2TNX5XAYSPGD2

If you’d like to make a monetary contribution, we’ll be directing those towards gas cards and DoorDash gift cards to help offset hospital living expenses. You can donate on our website (halliestrong.org/donate) or via Venmo ().

Thank you for helping us restore a little holiday magic for this amazing family!

Tomorrow!! Our big chance to make a little magic for a family who so desperately deserves it. If you’re looking for a place to give tomorrow, help us clear the Benson’s Christmas wish list: https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/2TNX5XAYSPGD2

If you’d like to make a monetary donation instead, we will be using those funds for gas and DoorDash gift cards to help offset how expensive hospital living is. You can donate on our website (halliestrong.org/donate) or via Venmo ().

We’d love a share too! The more the merrier in this effort. Thank you!!

Shop the Black Friday deals for Nova and her family today! Link is below. Can we clear the list before even starts?!
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https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/2TNX5XAYSPGD2

Last year we flipped the script on and it was such a HUGE success, we’re doing it again! Instead of donating to HallieStrong, we’re asking for your help in creating some Rusty Linings for the Benson Family!

Sweet Nova was diagnosed with AML in August of this year, at just two years old. She’s endured intense treatment at Riley Children’s Hospital since and is facing a stem cell transplant in January - all with the biggest, sweetest smile on her face.

And if that wasn’t enough for the Benson family, Nova’s Mom and Dad, Carla and Jake, were five months pregnant when Nova was diagnosed. Octavia was born at 37 weeks and had to be airlifted, also to Riley, where she endured a weeks long stay in the NICU. She is now home and happy, with big brother Braxton.

If you are looking to give this , we’d love your help bringing a little magic to the Benson’s holiday season. We’re sharing today in case you want to shop any Black Friday deals! 😉

Here’s how you can help:
•Shop the family’s Amazon Christmas wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/2TNX5XAYSPGD2
•Make a contribution either on our website (www.halliestrong.org/donate) or via Venmo () - all funds collected will go towards gas cards, DoorDash gift cards and grocery gift cards to help offset the expenses of hospital living

Thanks so much for helping us create a little joy for this much deserving family! 🧡

Opened a special package yesterday from the bravest little girl 🧡 Proud to be !

One week ago tonight, Bethany closed with these words:

“It was seven years ago yesterday that Kevin and I walked into that hospital as 3, only to leave as 2, five days later. It’s a story that still doesn’t make sense and never will here on earth. A story filled with so many dark days and seemingly hopeless turns.

And.

It’s a story no longer defined solely by her unspeakable loss but rather, one of her remarkable legacy of hope, because of HallieStrong. A little known story about Hallie’s name - we had Hallie picked out when we first found out we were pregnant. It was Hallie if it was a girl and Kelly if it was a boy. But it was in a Panera in the South Loop of Chicago where we picked Hope for her middle name. It was in those dark days after I was initially diagnosed, when we didn’t know up from down, or if any of us were going to survive this. I looked at Kevin and said, ‘Her middle name is Hope, because that’s the only thing that can get us through this.”

Cancer didn’t win with Hallie. It didn’t win with Justin or Will. It will never win with Liz. Hope has won. It continues to win through every care package sent. Through every Rusty Lining moment. That’s Hallie’s legacy now. That’s what we celebrate tonight. That’s where we grow from tonight. And that’s how we can finally see that she truly was created for such a time as this.”

🧡

Cintas (HQ’d in Cincinnati) has been a huge Socktober participant for three years running now! Big thanks to the entire team and to Betty (pictured here) who donated over 30 pairs herself.

We appreciate your efforts - they’ve impacted countless cancer patients 🧡

Big thanks to for making our sparkly dress dreams come true! ✨ You made us each feel like a princess for a night!