For Halloween, 8-year-old McKenzie Harris will wear a blue dress like the character Elsa from Disney’s “Frozen.”

The snowflake skirt her mother Sara Harris sewed will cover up her wheelchair and help her feel like other girls.

These are the moments Sara Harris relishes after a New Year’s Day crash rendered her daughter paralyzed from her chest down earlier this year.

“For the most part, she’s been pretty resilient,” she said of her daughter’s recovery during a phone interview. “But we have those down moments. She was talking about PE the other day and she got excited and said, ‘Mom, tomorrow’s PE,’ and then she began thinking about it and then said, ‘Oh, I guess I will have to watch them hula hoop.’”

The most challenging thing for her is watching her daughter in bed, unable to move.

“Like you can just see it in her eyes that she wants to be up and playing with [her brother], or anything like scratching her nose or giving me a hug. She can’t do any of that without assistance.”

On a recent afternoon, McKenzie and her parents visited Keller Williams Puget Sound employees in Federal Way, who are rallying to help the Eatonville family buy a new van to transport McKenzie to doctors’ appointments. Keller Williams will host its fourth annual charity auction and community dinner, Diamonds and Denim, on Nov. 8 at Emerald Downs in Auburn.

McKenzie sat in her new wheelchair with a pink-flowered headband wrapped around a brace that keeps her head from moving around. Her smile showed two missing front teeth.

Sara Harris began to tell their horrific story to a room of over 40 employees.

“On the 31st of December — “ she paused and cried. “Doug and I went on a date, which we never do, and we took the kids to their cousins’ house. We didn’t want to drive at 2 in the morning with our kids on New Year’s Eve.”

She and her husband Doug picked McKenzie and their then-3-year-old son Wyatt up, as well as their two nieces the next morning. Sara Harris drove alongside of her daughter and husband in the front seat; the other three children sat in the back. About 100 feet from their driveway, a truck swerved in their lane on State Route 7 and hit them head-on.

“We didn’t really have a lot of time to swerve or anything,” Doug Harris said. “I was having a conversation with the kids about breakfast and taking down the Christmas tree and what not. Sarah was driving and all I heard was her saying, ‘Oh my God, Doug.’ By the time I looked up, he was already crossing the center lane.”

All six were transported to various hospitals and it’s been a long recovery for the entire family. Doug Harris suffered from a head injury, a rib fracture and lost partial vision in one eye. His wife suffered a lumbar displacement, rib fractures, liver and spleen lacerations, among other injuries.

But McKenzie’s traumatic brain injury kept her in the hospital for nearly five months.

During that time, she got a special visit from Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and, on a separate visit, she got a near miss with Wilson and her favorite singer — Macklemore. Wilson was visiting Children’s Hospital with Macklemore when they passed McKenzie’s hospital room. However, the nurse sent the duo on their way as she figured McKenzie had already previously met Wilson and probably didn’t know who the singer was.

“So I said, ‘We just missed Macklemore!’” Sara Harris recalls telling her daughter. “And she said, ‘Did he have his fur coat on?’”

Now back at home, McKenzie requires 24-hour care that a nurse provides. She went back to school last month at Nelson Elementary and attends for two-and-a-half hours per day.

McKenzie cannot regulate her own temperature, something that Doug Harris finds most challenging as they constantly must watch her cheeks for signs that she is overheated.

Her parents transport her three times a week from Eatonville in Pierce County to Seattle for physical therapy and counseling sessions in their older mini-van. It once broke down on their way to an appointment and an ambulance had to transport McKenzie back home.

Sarah Harris noted that Graham Auto repaired the van and Keller Williams paid for the bill.

“I just started crying and I’m so thankful,” she said of the company’s good will. “I don’t know how I’m ever going to repay everybody for everything they’ve done for us.”

She said the family is also thankful that Keller Williams is helping them to raise funds for a new van, as the current one does not have enough room to house McKenzie’s new wheelchair and all of her equipment, including her oxygen tank and ventilator.

Keller Williams employees also plan to decorate her brother Wyatt’s room with his favorite John Deere tractors.

Cari Franklin, a Keller Williams realtor and chair of their auction committee, said the business chose McKenzie’s family to help when one of their agents brought the family to the committee’s attention. After hearing their story, they decided it was the best fit for Keller Williams.

“The first time I met Mckenzie and her mom, it was, it brought tears to my eyes,” Franklin said. “Just seeing this little girl in a hospital bed, on a respirator — she’s got this cute smile with two missing front teeth, pig tails, this darling little girl who’s not able to move much at all. That was heartbreaking.”

She said the mom is not one to ask for help but was very thankful and appreciative.

“That’s what makes it so nice too,” that nothing was expected.

The Harris’s are also suffering financially, with medical bills topping $2.5 million.

But everyone’s “prayers and positiveness” towards the family has helped them move forward, Sara Harris added.

“Without them, we’d be in not as good a place as we are now.”

The family embraces small signs of McKenzie’s recovery, including the movement in her right arm. Her mother pulls out a pink marker.

“Ooh,” McKenzie said in a soft voice, smiling.

“She does really well with her right arm and she’s starting to have more feelings down towards her legs,” her mother said as Keller Williams employees cheered McKenzie on, who drew on a piece of paper with the marker as her mother held her wrist. “As long as we hold her wrist and move it for her, she can write.”

There’s also a possibility that McKenzie may not need a ventillator in the future, Sara Harris said. Her diaphragm muscles aren’t strong enough for her to breath on her own fully and the weak muscles prevent her from speaking above a faint voice.

Her mother hooks up a microphone so the audience can hear her speak.

“Testing,” McKenzie said. “On my birthday we were supposed to go to American Girl but I was sick, so we went to Seattle for my appointment.”

While there, she got a doll.

“Zoey,” she said of her doll that sits in a wheelchair and looks just like her.

Diamonds and Denim

Keller Williams Puget Sound’s fourth annual auction that will benefit McKenzie Harris will be held from 5-9 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 8 at Emerald Downs, 2300 Emerald Downs Dr., Auburn. The cost is $60 per person.

For information, call 253-835-4500 or email kwpscares@gmail.com.