Turning June 2nd into Joy: The Story Behind the Halle Grace Toy Drive
- Jillian Heilman
- Apr 29
- 5 min read
Some dates on the calendar carry more weight than others. For my family, June 2nd is one of those days...a day that holds both profound loss and extraordinary love. It's my daughter Halle's birthday, the day she came into this world. The day I became a mom! And over the past 11 years, it has become something more than we ever could have imagined.
June 2nd was such a special day. It was the day of my baby shower at work. I felt tired, and had a ting of pain that day, but nothing out of the ordinary for someone 35 weeks pregnant. That night, as John and I ordered pizza for dinner, my water broke. It was 5:35pm...rush hour. "How fast can these babies come anyway?" I remember John asking as we drove to the hospital. Halle Grace
was in a hurry to come into the world, as she arrived just 5 hours later that evening. Little did we know, every day would be a gift. She was soon diagnosed with a rare chromosome deletion and many medical conditions. Because of this, we celebrated every milestone, especially birthdays!
June 2nd was our day to celebrate. We celebrated with a bee-themed party her first year and incorporated Minnie Mouse, Cinderella, and Dora in the following years. Birthdays soon became cooking parties and sleepovers and in the end her last birthday took her around the world - at Epcot. We found ways to celebrate her time on this earth with every year we had her and after Halle died, I worried...well actually I dreaded the calendar as June 2nd would come and she would not be there to celebrate the life that changed all of ours.
Despite my grief, just 6 months after her death in 2015, our family started the Halle Grace Foundation, and as part of our mission, we chose to continue Halle's legacy of life, love, and joy with other children who were dealing with chronic medical conditions in the hospital.
Halle spents many days in the hopsital, often weeks at a time. One things she would look forward to, was when the toy cart would come down the hall. The volunteers would offer her the pick of the cart - ANYTHING she wanted. They soon learned she loved Barbie and they would save a new doll that had come in, just for her to pick out.
June 2nd soon became a reason to continue to celebrate as the Halle Grace Toy Drive became an annual event in our local community. That first year, we delivered around 360 toys to two children's hospitals in Tampa Florida and each year the event has grown with each year.
In 2021, we collected 2,100 toys for what would have been her 21st birthday. Last year we filled more than 50 Sparkle Bags, each filled with a stuffed animal, a toy, a coloring book, crayons and more, for my 50th birthday. Now this year, 2026, we are 11 years into the celebration of Halle's birthday with our annual toy drive. While, this day is often filled with memories, and what ifs, it is also filled with laughter, joy, and lots of love as we share Halle Grace's spirit with other children facing similar challenges as she once did.
What started as a local effort now spans multiple states:
Connecticut
Florida
North Carolina
Wisconsin and Illinois
Every June 2nd, our community shows up. People donate toys, host collection drives, spread the word, and help us deliver joy to children in hospitals and infusion clinics. The logistics have gotten more complex, coordinating across state lines, organizing volunteers, managing donations, but the heart of it remains the same.
Delivering toys on June 2nd has become a sacred ritual for our family. Yes, it's still hard. Yes, there are tears. But there's also something profoundly healing about pulling up to a children's hospital with cars full of toys.
There have been so many moments over the years that have stayed with me—children who were having the worst day of their lives suddenly finding a moment of happiness, parents who were overwhelmed with gratitude, hospital staff who told us how much it meant to see their young patients smile.
These moments remind me that strength isn't about not feeling pain. It's about choosing to show up anyway. It's about taking one of the hardest day of your year and deciding it can also be a day that brings light to someone else.
On the Strength Happens podcast, my co-host Janine and I talk a lot about what strength means. This toy drive embodies that in ways I'm still learning to articulate.
Strength is:
Showing up on the day you'd rather hide
Turning your pain into purpose
Building community around shared values
Choosing joy even when grief is present
Honoring loss by creating something meaningful
After 11 years, this tradition has taught me that healing doesn't mean forgetting. It means finding ways to carry love forward. Halle's story doesn't end on June 2nd, it continues every time a child receives a toy in her honor, every time someone joins this mission, every time we choose connection over isolation.
The Halle Grace Toy Drive only works because of community. If you'd like to be part of this tradition, here's how:
Donate toys (new, unwrapped toys for children of all ages)
Or shop local and deliver to a children's hospital near you and share pictures of your delivery!
Host a collection drive in your workplace, school, or community
Spread the word on social media
Share Halle's story so others can join the mission through the latest episode of Strength Happens.
Every contribution matters. Every toy represents a moment of joy for a child who needs it. Every person who participates becomes part of a legacy of love.
If you're reading this and you want to make a difference, I want you to know: you don't have to do something huge. Small acts of kindness, repeated consistently, create ripples that reach farther than you'll ever know.
And if you're reading this and you're part of our Strength Happens/Halle Grace Foundation community, I want you to say: thank you. Thank you for showing up, for caring, for being part of something bigger than any one of us.
June 2nd will always be Halle's birthday. But it's also become a day when hundreds of children receive unexpected joy. It's become a day when a community comes together. It's become a day that proves love doesn't end...it transforms.
This is what strength looks like. This is how strength happens.
To learn more about the Halle Grace Toy Drive, listen to the full podcast episode wherever you get your podcasts.
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