Piper’s Promise | Georgia girl turns hospital birthday into toy drive for sick kids

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — One year ago, Piper Barrington spent her 11th birthday in a Warner Robins hospital bed, hooked up to machines, unsure of what was happening to her body.

Tomorrow, she turns 12. And instead of keeping the celebration to herself, she’s making sure other kids stuck in the hospital don’t have to feel alone on their special day.

Piper was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s encephalopathy — an extremely rare autoimmune disease that attacks the brain — after suffering multiple seizures in the spring of last year. Her first seizure came without warning at a softball scrimmage on March 6, 2025. Her mother, Tristan Barrington, was sitting behind home plate when she heard her husband’s voice change.

“He doesn’t really use that kind of voice anyway, so that was immediately kind of like, ‘Oh my God, something’s wrong,'” Tristan said.

What followed was nearly a month of hospitalizations, MRIs, lumbar punctures and uncertainty. Piper had three seizures in less than a month. After her third, doctors had to intubate her. She was on a ventilator for three to four days. Her birthday fell in the middle of it all.

Through it all, Piper said she doesn’t remember much. The disease affected her memory. But she remembers the nurses.

“I felt very appreciated,” Piper said. “And I wanted to give the other kids who had to spend their birthday in the hospital to also feel appreciated like I was.”

That feeling turned into Piper’s Promise — a toy drive collecting donations for children admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Beverly Knight Olsen Children’s Hospital in Macon, where Piper was treated. She chose to focus specifically on the PICU because those kids can’t leave their floor to visit the hospital’s toy room.

The idea came from a simple conversation about what Piper wanted to do for her birthday. Her mother said she didn’t need much — she has four sets of grandparents and plenty of love around her. But Piper had something else on her mind.

“She just wanted to find a way to make someone else’s day a little bit brighter,” Tristan said.

Piper’s Promise is being hosted at Tricky’s Cards and Games in Warner Robins, a local card shop the Barrington family visits every week for Pokemon and Lorcana nights. The family said the community connection made it the perfect place.

Tristan said watching her daughter go from a hospital bed to organizing a community toy drive is something she couldn’t have imagined during the darkest days of last year.

“I can’t even put into words the thought of your child not being who they are anymore,” she said. “And now she just wants to give back to people, which is all I could ever ask for as a parent.”

Piper, who is also a Children’s Miracle Network ambassador, said she hopes her story gives other sick kids something to hold onto.

“I came back,” she said. “So I think they’ll be able to survive the hospital and eventually come back and be able to be a normal kid with a normal life.”

Toy donations for Piper’s Promise can be dropped off at Tricky’s Cards and Games in Warner Robins through March 31. All toys will be donated to Beverly Knight Olsen Children’s Hospital in Macon.