New Perry business leads rally to help local child battling cancer

In early March of 2020, just before the coronavirus pandemic put the world on pause, Houston Home Journal met with the family of a local toddler by the name of Hailey Holder Allen (affectionately called “H2”) who was battling a type of cancer called Aveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma (often referred to as ARMS). At that time of her diagnosis, according to her mom, whose name is also Hailey, doctors gave her only a 20% chance of living to see the age of four. Little H2 has been fighting ever since.

After aggressive treatments, the now three-year-old came through like the champion that she is. The child had been doing well and the public has been following her story via social media and cheering her on every step of the way. On last week, however, her mother shared news that nobody wanted to hear. H2 had been diagnosed with a relapse.

In an emotional Facebook post made on last week, Allen, H2’s mother, shared, “On Tuesday, Hailey Holder’s PET scan showed two spots in her little body that suggested relapse. On Wednesday, we were told we may only have a few months left with her… This is a terrible situation and Blake [her husband] and I are completely beside ourselves.”

Despite the dismal news the community support immediately began pouring in for this child who had grown up before their eyes on social media.

One family-owned business in Perry, jumped into action with both feet. Sunset Slush of Middle Georgia is owned by husband and wife team, Patrick and Jessica Watson. They have known the Blake and Hailey Allen for a few years and like so many others, they have watched the struggles that they have gone through with their young daughter.

“When we learned that she had relapsed in her cancer battle, we decided that we had to do something to help,” Patrick Watson told Houston Home Journal in a private conversation this past Monday morning. “We wanted to support them, but we also wanted to do it in a way that would get the community together to help too.”

The Watsons accomplished that my making the announcement that 100% of the proceeds from their sales on Friday, July 30 would go to the Allen family. With only one day’s notice, the community responded.

Once the announcement was made on Facebook last Thursday, Watson shared that one of the local news stations got wind of it and did a story that aired Friday morning before they opened for business.

“That helped a lot in getting the word out,” he said. “We had over 1,000 people to show up on Friday. We were overwhelmed through the whole nine hours that we were open, but it was a great turnout, and I couldn’t have been prouder of my staff or the community that rallied together.”

Sunset Slush of Middle Georgia is one of downtown Perry’s newest brick and mortar businesses having opened it doors only about a month ago. For about a year prior to that, it had been a mobile food vendor only. All day Friday, the storefront was packed with supporters of H2 and her family.

“There were so many people that came out and didn’t even buy anything. They just donated,” Watson said. “People called us on the phone that couldn’t even come out, but they donated. It was extremely heartwarming to see the community rally around this event on such a short notice,” he continued. “We literally said we were doing this event tomorrow, and Houston County showed up. We had a line around the building. There were people that waited an hour to get in. It was really crazy, but extremely worth it.”

In total, between sales and donations, the day’s efforts brought in a total of over $12,000 that was given directly to the family to assist them wherever needed. The Allens were not present at the fundraiser because upon receiving the news of the diagnosis, they decided to get away for a few days for some intimate family time with their daughter. However, H2’s grandparents did stop by briefly to thank them for what they were doing. As for Watson, he said as overwhelmed as they were on Friday, he had no regrets and his staff was happy to stand in the gap.

“If we see opportunities where we can help the community and raise some funds, we will always be there. I have four healthy children, so I can’t imagine what Blake and Hailey are going through. But if that were happening to me, I would love to know that somebody is there to support. We wanted to be that person, so if anything were ever to happen, we can say that we did our best.”

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