Not long after her daughter, 8-year-old Hailey Pease, lost her three-month battle with leukemia in July of last year, Wareham resident Shannon Maxim began thinking about ways to turn her grief into help for other families.

"Every single day, families are losing children," Maxim explained.

And not only to cancer, but to freak tragedies such as car crashes and other accidents.

"They all have the same story," Maxim said of parents who are struggling with the loss of a child. "When it comes to grieving, you don't want to just get off the couch and go back to work and pretend it never happened."

So Maxim and family-friend Jessica Travers have launched "Hailey's Helping Hands," which Maxim hopes will help families with sick children and families who have lost a child.

Whether its giving families the opportunity to take a trip with their sick loved-one, helping them pay bills, or giving grieving parents the opportunity to take a little more time off of work, Maxim says Hailey's Helping Hands will be there.

And families will have "someone who can honestly say, 'I've been there,'" Maxim explained.

This weekend, just about a week after the anniversary of Hailey’s July 28, 2011, death, Hailey’s Helping Hands will host its first fundraiser: a motorcycle run from Acushnet to Wareham and a celebration at the Wareham Elks Lodge.

Maxim says she hopes the event will raise the approximately $850 needed for Hailey's Helping Hands to obtain its nonprofit status.

"This is going to help us get started," she said. "Every day that goes by that I don't have [Hailey's Helping Hands] going, it kills me that I can't help [families]."

Called “Hailey’s Ride,” the motorcycle run begins at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, August 4, at the Blue Lantern in Acushnet, and finishes at the Wareham Elks Lodge at approximately 1 p.m.

Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. at the Blue Lantern. A party at the Elks will be held from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. and will feature live music with Wareham’s Whiskey Throttle, food, and raffles.

The cost is $15 for riders, passengers, and non-riders who just want to join the fun at the Elks.

If anyone would like to donate a dish to the event, food donations will be accepted at the door, and donors will receive $5 off the admission price.

For more information about Hailey's Helping Hands, visit www.facebook.com/HaileysHelpingHands.