The Story.
This wasn’t the type of post I was used to seeing on Jessica’s page. She usually shares photos of her daughter Alexis with their rescue dogs or happy videos of her dancing. So last Sunday’s post stopped me in my tracks and I felt horrible. No one came? WTF?
Before long, the post made it’s way to Charlie Diggs, who offered to throw Alexis another birthday party the following weekend. There was something in his tone and the excited responses that you just knew this guy meant business.
Who is Charlie Diggs?
He is a single father, cherished event promotor, and founder of Charlie's Helping Hands Foundation. According to the Facebook page, their primary focus is on helping catastrophe victims, veterans, and children. He has huge connections in the community and posted daily about the party taking shape. Donations of time, products, and services came pouring in. From Snow to Porta-potties to Princesses! Before long, it had taken on a life of it's own and hundreds of people were RSVP'ing that they'd be there. Many more sent video messages and gifts for Alexis. Just amazing.
Who is Alexis?
I’ve been an Alexis fan for over a year. In fact, I planned to write an article about her several months ago. She is a pint-sized dog whisperer, horse whisperer, Little Miss Dolittle, and I wanted everyone to see. She learned from her mother, who is the director of Ranch Haven Rescue, an organization that works to help rehabilitate and re-home animals in need.
But something told me to wait. I didn’t know why but I’ve learned to follow my gut, and apologized to her mom, but that we would definitely circle back in the future and get it done. When I saw Jessica’s Facebook post about the party, I knew it was Alexis’ time to shine.
By the way, Alexis has alopecia, which is an auto immune disease that attacks hair follicles causing hair to fall out with no known cause or treatment. She doesn’t have cancer and isn’t sick, but her appearance often gets mistaken for both.
The Plan.
I arranged to do a family photoshoot out at their house in the morning so we could have a story to tell Alexis. About an hour later, a limo came to take us to the party, but we pretended it was taking us to the next location for more photos.
Alexis is a dancer. A princess. A free spirit. I just love her.
She was clueless about the surprise. We watched Frozen in stereo in the limo donated by Bob Milner of Mercedes Benz of The Woodlands. It was surreal. She had no idea that she was about to see live princesses and virtually become one herself. My emotions were bubbling up around this time, just before we arrived at our destination, and I said to Jessica and Kyle, "This will be a story to tell your grandkids."
The Party.
She was overwhelmed by the crowd of approximately 1,000 screaming when she got out of the car, but it quickly turned into happiness when she saw the gigantic birthday banner and her mom whispered in her ear that everyone was there for her.
There were guests who flew in from out of state to be there. Several people living with alopecia came to support Alexis. There were princesses. Snow. Birthday cakes. Gifts. (Tons of them..which will be donated to an orphanage in Galveston). A representative from The Children's Alopecia Project came in from Pennsylvania. Miss Texas was there. Alexis had her own bodyguards for the entire event. Police were directing traffic. There was a Paint Lady, Santa was there, Moon Walks. Channel 11 filmed the whole thing. Gosh, so many things and I want to credit everyone but I don’t have all the info, sorry. See the rest of the photos from the party below. It was a great time. Especially for all the kids, who only wanted to take selfies with Alexis and be her newest friend.
The Gratitude.
I just received this note from Jessica which sums up the day perfectly.
“I was so proud of her. Until the very end of the party she was still smiling for every picture just about, giving hugs and saying thank you. She watched them load every single gift into that trailer and only grabbed one (a blue unicorn she held on to for comfort to drive home with). We have several kids at the house tonight and she has not asked about gifts once. She was so gracious and humble. I was very proud. She is just so happy to have friends. I am so thankful.”
“Tomorrow, one by one, she will open up each gift so we can hopefully get thank you’s out to those who were willing to leave a card. I cannot tell you how many people came up to me and grabbed my arm terrified she was not going to actually open their gift once they heard they were going to be donated. She will open them all. We will keep the memories of each gift and any special mementos specially made for her. But we want to gift back what the community gifted us in whatever tangible way we can to make some other childrens’ hearts smile this Christmas!”