10-year-old girl’s dream to ‘stand tall’ gets help from Pembroke Pines Hooters
If there were ever a case for destiny, the day Hooters server Gracie Williams met 10-year-old Maci Jones would fit the bill.
Williams, who was recently crowned Miss July in the franchise’s famous calendar, swapped a Nov. 9 shift at her Fort Lauderdale Beach Place home store to sign autographs at the Pembroke Pines location’s screening of a Miami Dolphins game.
The Jones family — hungry after traveling from Vero Beach to watch the football game from the stands at Hard Rock Stadium — missed their exit on the drive up and stopped at the Pembroke Pines sports bar for a quick bite.
It was Maci’s singing and dancing while using a wheelchair that drew the 24-year-old server to talk to the family and launch a multi-thousand-dollar fundraising effort for a new mobility aid her adoptive father, Darin Jones, says would be “truly life-changing.”
“It lifted a lot of weight off my shoulders to know that someone like that, going through all of this and the life she’s been through, is still shining bright,” Williams said.
When Jones, 62, first laid eyes on his future daughter, he remembered her looking “so helpless” as a comatose 2-year-old with bandages around her head and tubes up her nose.
Her biological mother’s boyfriend, Stevie Wallace, had beaten her repeatedly over the course of a week, and the pair attempted to hide the abuse by claiming her injuries stemmed from a playdate gone wrong.
Doctors said the damage was equal to dropping her from a 3-story building. Wallace has been behind bars since 2018 serving a 30-year sentence.
Jones, a retired Indian River County sheriff’s captain, and his wife Lisa adopted Maci shortly after, taking on the medical expenses that followed the young girl.
When they first took her in, they sold their two-story home in Vero Beach, downsized to a one-story house and made it handicap accessible.
To drive her to doctor’s appointments and school — where she’s a fourth grade honor roll student — they traded in their cars for wheelchair-friendly vans nearly double the price.
They financed a costly brain surgery and hospital stay when she was struck by startle seizures at age 7.
And if she wants a shot at walking someday, Jones told Williams when they met, Maci will need a $42,000 scooter that would help her stand so she can drain the fluid accumulating in her legs and regain muscular strength.
Williams, who doubles as a Hooters regional marketing coordinator and is a regular at local childrens hospitals, wasted no time setting up the family with a “friendraiser,” the franchise’s campaign to partner with charities and those seeking fundraising help.
“We’ve been through so much with Macy that we don’t know who to turn to for help. Vero is a small town,” he said. “It’s hard to ask for anything, so it’s just beautiful to see someone helping us.”
A Nov. 30 event at Hooters of Pembroke Pines raked in over $500 through the restaurant’s pledge to donate 20% of participating food and beverage sales to Maci’s cause. That evening, another good Samaritan gifted the Joneses $3,000 through the family’s separate GoFundMe account, according to Williams.
To keep spreading the word, Williams and Maci represented Hooters in Nicklaus Children’s Hospital’s Coach Spo’s 5K on Dec. 7, with the 10-year-old completing the race from her motorized wheelchair. They celebrated crossing the finish line at Hooters of Coral Way’s “friendraiser” for the young girl.
The 24-year-old server says she’s formed a “best friend connection” with Maci, with the Jones family adding that the love and gratitude are mutual.
Williams is pushing for more “friendraisers” to pop up across Hooters’ South Florida locations in 2026, hoping Maci’s cause reaches as fas as the franchise’s Southwest Florida stores.
In the meantime, she’s created an additional fundraiser on FreeFunder for the Joneses that has raised over $1,000 as of Dec. 8.
“Every penny counts, but also sharing the posts, the GoFundMe and sending prayers is something I’ve been asking for,” Williams said. “Honestly, thank you from the bottom of my heart for wanting to help Maci stand tall, just like I do.”
This story was originally published December 8, 2025 at 3:49 PM.
