13 year old Leona Witherspoon from Philadelphia, PA had been fighting leukemia for some time when the Front Row Foundation received an email from her social worker Nicole Pier at Chop Hospital of Philadelphia. Nicole said that Leona loves music and more than anything wanted to see The Color Purple, the musical about love presented by Oprah Winfrey. Front Row Team went to work to make her wish become a reality.

With the help of Academy of Music marketing department and Janet Lynn, the tickets for The Color Purple were donated by the producers of the show. Tatyana Kalinichenko put together a beautiful basket that Leona received a day before the event. Leona, her 3 sisters and her mom were escorted by a white limo to Academy of Music where Front Row Volunteer Alicia Anderer was waiting for them with 6 front row tickets to see the show. Leona was thrilled to sit so close to the stage, right next to the orchestra!

There was no back stage passes supposed to be given out that day because there were two shows playing back to back. Magically, Alicia, our event coordinator was able to talk one of the security workers into letting Leona and her family back stage. Leona was so happy; she even had her picture taken with one of the actresses.

After the show ended the white limo took Leona and her family to Leona’s favorite restaurant – Applebee’s. Applebee’s manager Pete agreed to help make the night even more special for Leona by reserving the table for her (Applebee’s doesn’t do reservations). He and his staff decorated the table and even put a name tag with Leona’s name on it. When the family arrived to the restaurant, Pete, his staff and the chef greeted Leona by name, letting her know how special she really is.

The day after the event we got a phone call from Leona’s mom. She was very appreciative of everything that we had done for Leona. We also received a card from Leona thanking everyone in the Front Row Foundation for making a special day for her.

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