Two young girls spotted Halena arriving at the Garcelon Civic Centre and went over to have their photograph taken with her.
As Jessi Hovey pushed her daughter’s wheelchair through the lobby, volunteers in Hal’s Heroes T-shirts were selling shirts and glow sticks to help renovate the family’s mobile home, where doorways were too narrow for Hal’s chair. The grassroots fundraiser had taken on a life of its own, going viral in the best possible way as everyone found a way to help. Everywhere they looked were Hal’s favourite colours: purple, black and teal.
It was Oct. 9 in St. Stephen, and the Grade 5 student everyone calls Hal could barely make it through the lobby without someone wanting a photograph with her.
When Hovey first posted her desperate plea for help on Facebook, she had exhausted every funding avenue, program and grant she could find to make their home accessible. She could hardly have imagined it would lead here: an arena filled with more than 1,000 people, two hockey teams preparing to celebrate her daughter and strangers joining the effort to help her keep Hal safely at home.
At the time, she was trying to solve a problem measured in inches.
“My bathroom door is only 24 inches. Her wheelchair is 25. My dryer is there and my toilet’s there,” Hovey said. “There’s… there’s no other way.”
Hal lives with Friedreich’s ataxia, a rare inherited condition that progressively affects balance, coordination and movement. She once walked, then used a walker. Today, she uses a wheelchair that cannot fit through parts of the mobile home she shares with her mother.
Widening the bathroom doorway would mean moving the dryer and toilet. What might sound like a simple adjustment was a major renovations beyond what Hovey could afford.
She could not take on another loan. But she had not given up on making their home a place where her daughter could continue living safely. So she asked her community for help.
Chrissy McGregor saw the Facebook appeal and recognized something she could do. With a construction business and connections to local contractors, she could help bring together the people and skills the family needed.
One offer led to another. Contractors, businesses and neighbours found ways to contribute, setting off a domino effect. Hal’s Heroes took shape.
“We’re just making connections, and the rest of the community is taking it and just running with it,” McGregor said.
For Hovey, every offer carried the same deeply personal meaning.
“That means there’s that many people out there just willing to help me keep my little girl home,” she said. “It’s definitely like every day I have happy tears instead of sad ones.”
The goal was to raise $40,000 for renovations that would give Hal more independence. And Hal has plenty she wants to do. She loves fishing, hopes to try surfing and wants to become an online creator, sharing her adventures in Minecraft.
“She wants to be an influencer,” Hovey said. “She wants to have people watch her play Minecraft.”
Gaming offers her daughter a freedom that the physical world does not always allow.
“But I love those games for her because she gets to be the same as everybody else,” Hovey said.
After seeing the fundraiser, Chelsea Arbo and Rebecca Smith, with the St. Stephen County Moose of the National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC), reached out. They wanted to help with the renovations and give Hal a day to look forward to.
“We said, you know, this can be bigger than just fundraising,” Arbo said. “Let’s give Hal a reason to be excited and see her name out there and celebrate her too.”
In the Garcelon lobby, that wish had become real. Inside the arena, Moose captain Hayden Anderson brought her onto the ice in her wheelchair. Even those of us high in the stands could see her smile.
She joined the players for the Canadian and American national anthems as the Moose prepared to face the visiting Lewiston Maineiacs. Her favourite colours filled the crowd on people’s T-shirts, in the glowsticks they were holding, and on the balloons tied to seats and in kids’ hands. Then, Hal dropped the ceremonial puck.
“We receive a lot of support from our community, and it’s always good to give back,” Anderson said.
The Moose finished the night with a 4-2 victory. Thousands of dollars were raised, with donations continuing toward the renovation goal.
At a time when many households are struggling themselves, people still found something to give: their skills, their time, a donation or a place in the stands.
“There’s something about this community. We’re not rich in finances, but we are absolutely the most rich community you could ever find anywhere in the people and the caring,” McGregor said.
Hovey’s appeal began with something people understood instinctively: a mother wanted to keep her daughter safe at home. The response grew because neighbours made that wish matter to them, too.
That night at the Garcelon, more than 1,000 of us were cheering for the home team on the ice and for our own hometown girl, Hal. And now, the fundraiser is just a few thousand dollars shy of its $40,000 goal.”
We might all have instinctively signed up to be Hal’s Heroes, but in the end, Hal became a hero for us, too: a reminder of what a big family a small community can be, and of the fierce power we have when we come together. Love, put into action, can change the world.
Preliminary renovation work has begun on Hal’s home.
