MASSILLON, Ohio — At first glance, Hallie Deiters looks like your average 8-year-old girl. She's full of energy and smiles, but her young life has been anything but average. In 2018, at just three years old, she was diagnosed with leukemia.
"It is scary and devastating and I mean, you go through so many emotions of just like, what does this mean?," Hallie's mom, Anna Myers, recalled. "What's going to happen? All the steps. It's very overwhelming."
Hallie had to undergo two years of grueling treatment at Akron Children's Hospital -- the second, consuming her entire kindergarten year. Then, just as she was cleared to resume a normal life, COVID hit.
"There was even more challenges of... here we are able to kind of get back to normal life, but the whole world is entering the life that we just lived," Anna said.
And then, this past October, Hallie relapsed. She spent months in Cincinnati working with a new team, and undergoing special treatments. The family just returned home a few weeks ago.
"It's very different when you are in a completely different city, [and a] completely new hospital," Anna explained. "So to be home again has just meant so much."
And now that she's home again. Halle needs a diversion, and opportunities to focus on just being a kid. That's where Roc Solid Foundation comes in. A national organization founded by a former pediatric cancer survivor, the nonprofit provides Ready Bags to kids and families in the hospital after diagnosis, as well as donates and builds Playsets to kids fighting cancer.
According to the organization, when children face a pediatric cancer diagnosis, normal family activities are replaced with doctor’s appointments and treatments that leave kids with weak immune systems – and often the inability to interact in public. A new backyard playset not only provides a safe, germ-free place to play, but it also gives the child and family an escape from the reality of fighting cancer and a way to create happy memories together.
"We believe that play defeats cancer, and we're going to build hope for every family everywhere," Director of Business Development Chris Schaefer said as the build day for Hallie's new playset began.
Roc Solid recently teamed up with Kaulig Giving, which purchased 10 of these playsets to be built for kids in Ohio. On this day, two dozen volunteers from Kaulig Companies showed up to build the third set. This one's for Hallie.
"We couldn't be here today without Kaulig Giving, bringing volunteers out, that that's what makes this day happen, Schaefer said. "That's what makes this day special for Hallie, is to see a community rallying around her to make you know her day, to give her the opportunity to play on a play set and to provide that escape."
The kindness and generosity is something Anna says she'll never take for granted.
"People showing up, like you said, and taking time out of their day. I have no idea what these people have going on in their lives. It just means so much that, and it shows that there is good people in the world and that there are good people out there, and that they do good things," Anna added.
After just a few hours, the build was complete. And then, it was time for the reveal. Hallie immediately got to work, joining her friends and neighbors on the slide and even setting up a pretend bakery named "Hallie's Cafe" inside.
The final piece to the play set? Two very special signs -- One that reads "hope." And another sign made by Hallie that reads "No Cancer Allowed."
Asked what the playset means to her, Hallie had one very simple and fitting reply.
"It means to me that, well, that I'm going to have so much fun."
