Southwest Airlines employees across the country are rallying around a North Texas girl battling leukemia.
When Sadie Hale's birthday party - which was supposed to be held Valentine’s Day - was canceled because of her illness, the airline her father works for sent the celebration to her.
Travis Hale is an aircraft dispatcher for Southwest Airlines. When his daughter was diagnosed with leukemia in January, he asked for a few wishes to brighten her Valentine’s birthday.
“Sadie loves Southwest. So I sent out a message to see if we could get birthday cards we could read to her. And then it’s blown up into this. It kept growing and growing. It’s awesome,” said Hale.
Because she’s at risk for infection, her birthday party was canceled.
“She was a little letdown. She was looking forward to seeing her friends from preschool again,” Hale said.
But, on this Valentine’s Day, there is no shortage of love at the Hale home in Keller.
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Sadie unwrapped gifts, some bigger than her, delivered from Southwest employees.
The staircase is stacked with 90 packages, boxes, and gift bags -- that’s just from Southwest, family and friends.
There are more presents in the dining room from her preschool. Another FedEx delivery arrived in the middle of our interview.
Her parents hope the cards help ease the anxiety of chemo on Monday.
“It’s going to be a lengthy process. We’ll probably be there seven or eight hours. We’ll take the cards and read them to her then. There’s no way we could ever thank you enough. Giving the smiles back to my daughter is the number one goal. And you guys have all helped me do that,” said Hale.
Sadie’s parents said they’re thinking of spreading the love and donating some of the toys to sick kids at Cook Children’s in Fort Worth.
