In 2014, when Zoey was 13 months old, the Collins family lived in Florida, where Zoey and her younger brother, Carter, were born. None of the Collins’ New York family members had met the two children yet, so the family flew home to New York for a week for a surprise visit. Unfortunately during that visit, Zoey found — and bit into — a laundry detergent pod, and she was immediately transferred to the former Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo.

There, Zoey spent a week in the pediatric intensive care unit on life support. “It had burned her esophagus, so she was in respiratory distress and unable to breathe on her own,” Zoey’s mother, Jennifer, explained. “She was put into a coma to keep her from pulling out her ventilator. The staff was so kind and caring. They saved my baby girl.”

Not long after Zoey was released from the hospital, the Collins family noticed something different about Carter, now 4 years old. After visiting the doctor and reviewing Carter’s test results, it was discovered that Carter had a non-cancerous brain tumor, which brought the family back to Children’s Hospital. Carter has had routine appointments with neurosurgeon Dr. Li at Children’s Hospital, and his next appointment is on Christmas Eve, which is when the family visits the hospital every year to give gifts to the children.

“Zoey was worried the kids on Carter’s floor wouldn’t have gifts, so she asked if we can give away her smaller crowns she has won from her pageants, so that’s what we will be doing as well,” Jennifer explained.

Submitted Photo Zoey Collins, 5, of Dunkirk is sharing some of her crowns and toys with children at Oishei Children’s Hospital this Christmas Eve.

Zoey’s already impressive pageant career has taken her all over the country, and she holds multiple titles in several different states. Many of the toys that Zoey is sharing are toys she has won at these pageants, and every year she shares them with children in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), and now on her brother’s floor at the hospital.

Over the past week, Zoey and her four brothers Austin, 20; Brenden, 17; Cody, 7; and Carter, 4; have been wrapping the toys she has collected in preparation for Christmas Eve. “She has traveled all over and has been given so many amazing opportunities along the way,” said Jennifer. “Charity is a big part of pageants, and she has learned this over the years of participating in so many.”