Pajamas just the start for Share Your Story Foundation to help those battling cancer
Treatment for pediatric cancer is never fun. It's even less fun if a kid has to wear scratchy, uncomfortable and annoyingly revealing clothing during long treatments.
That's why the hallegrace pajama line came into being.
The line, a project of the Share Your Story Foundation, was inspired by Halle Grace Temple, in whose honor the foundation was created.
Temple, who died at 24 in 2020, fought Ewing's sarcoma as a child and again as a young adult. After her death, her family created the foundation to carry on her mission to help those who battle cancer.
They started with housing. Two Halle's Homes, apartments across the street from Nationwide Children's Hospital, provide a home for families whose children are there for long treatments. Five families have stayed in the apartments, including one from west Africa, who should be leaving the home after almost a year there.
“We don't put a timeline on it,” said Julie Hershberger, Halle's mother and one of the founders of the Share Your Story Foundation, along with her husband Jim and Halle's husband, Alec Temple.
“If they're from out of town, that's just too much stress. They can stay for as long as they need to, until they're done with their course of treatment."
A first to stay in one of Halle's Homes was the family of Crosby Kachur, who was at Nationwide Children's Hospital as a 1-year-old to receive a bone-marrow transplant as the result of Immunodeficiency, Centromeric region instability, Facial anomalies (ICF) syndrome, a rare genetic disorder.
Because the family, which includes parents Kristin and Kevin Kachur and Crosby's two older brothers, lived in Findlay, they needed some place to stay nearby the hospital for what would turn out to be eight months of treatment. They approached the hospital social worker and she pointed them in the direction of the new foundation.
“Julie called and we had this emotional conversation. We shared stories; she told us about Halle; we all cried. We got the keys within a week,” Kristin said.
During the months of treatment, she would use the apartment to retreat for lunch or a nap before returning to the hospital, and then her husband and sons would come down to stay for weekends.
“There was a pool there, so we could do that; we could go for walks, get pizza, watch a movie and eat popcorn. It felt like we were a family,” Kristin said.
Once Halle's Homes was established, it was time for the next piece of the foundation's mission.
Halle, who was not a fan of normal hospital pajamas, had talked with her mother many times about the possibility of this project. In January of 2023, Hershberger approached local fashion designer Amanda Rango, and together, they began to develop the line.
“We met with a group of 12 individuals from Nationwide Children's Hospital at the beginning of the project and just asked a lot of questions about how treatments happen, where they need access. From that conversation, we were able to make some decisions,” Rango said.
“The functionality is through our adaptable closures,” Rango said. “We chose snaps because Velcro, when it's washed, can lose its stick, and it can be abrasive to the skin, and then zippers, once you unzip and you have cords coming out, you can't zip it back up. With snaps, you can resnap the top snap and you have modesty while you're doing your treatment.”
The pajamas are also specifically designed to honor Halle.
“Her faith was really important to her, so Bible verses are placed in strategic places on the collars,” Hershberger said.
“She was very studious and she loved elephants, so one print has an elephant sitting on a park bench with a tutu ? when Halle was little, she was a dancer – reading a book.”
Most importantly, the pajamas are designed to feel good to the patients wearing them.
“We chose a modal fabric because the hand feel is buttery-soft,” Rango said.
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“The aim is to make each person who is wearing them feel like Halle is giving them a hug,” Hershberger said.
The pajamas are in production now, and the e-commerce site on which they are to be sold is due to open Aug. 18, Halle's birthday. The goal is to have them available both to individuals and to hospitals.
“It's such a dream of ours to watch this unfold, and to know that we're fulfilling a dream Halle had,” Hershberger said.
“She always said she had a story to tell, and that she wasn't going to let cancer define her story. To be able to bring honor to her life has been life-giving and healing for us as a family as we journey through this grief process.”
Learn more
For more information about Halle's Homes and to learn more about or contribute to the development of the hallegrace pajama line, go to sysfoundation.org.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Homes and PJs: Columbus foundation helps those battling cancer
