Back to First Gift
I arrived at TCHD on May 1st at 9am, excited to be there as a representative of all the fans who had donated money, in Ace’s name, to Children’s. Right away, I was introduced to Ace, Jay, Kay, Ryan, and Marc – who all hugged me and made me feel incredibly welcome… After I'd met everyone, hugged everyone, and we were sitting in the volunteer room hanging out before the ceremony, Ace was sitting reading some orange papers. Marc asked what he was reading, and he said it was a letter that came with the check. He skimmed the letter (I'm sure he read it in depth later-or maybe he reads super fast?) and then he turned the page and saw the list of names. Then he turned another page, and another one, and another one, his face getting more and more shocked each time. At one point, he muttered "wow". Marc said something like "Long letter, huh" and he said "No, it's a list of names, the people who donated. There's hundreds of them." And then he looked up, looked at Ryan & Marc, and then looked at me, and had tears in his eyes and smiled the sweetest smile I've seen from him.
He was so touched by seeing the names of the people that were involved. He just kept looking at the letter, amazed that SO MANY PEOPLE had been involved. He looked at me, put his hand on my arm and said, "This is really great. It's amazing. Thank you."
We were called to the donation ceremony, and here’s where Ace took over. He just got up there and TOTALLY did his thing. He told the story of what Simon said when he got booted. He told the story of singing to kids at the Children’s hospital in NYC. He even acted a little bit of that out, which was totally hilarious. Apparently the kids he brought on stage with him didn’t really WANT to sing, but Ace faked like he forgot the words, so he brought the 2 little boys into a huddle at the back of the stage, and he was trying to get them to sing along, to tell him the words. But he was holding the microphone in the middle of the huddle, so the audience could hear everything. Eventually, the kids noticed and were like “HEY, They can HEAR US!” That got a big laugh from everyone, but the story really showcased how good Ace was with kids.
He then asked the audience if any kids had a specific song they wanted to hear him sing. A young girl asked for Butterflies, so Ace had her come sit in a chair up front while he sang to her. He plugged her name into Butterflies and sang a little personalized snippet directly to her. She nearly fainted.
After that, Ace asked if any of the other patients wanted to sing, and a little boy said he did. He was probably eight years old, and so Ace brought him up and asked if he knew the chorus to We Will Rock You. The boy said yes, but didn’t want to sing in front of people because he thought we’d laugh at him. And then Ace did the sweetest thing imaginable. He looked at the boy, looked at the podium, crouched down and then said this, without the microphone, “See this podium? See how tall it is? See how tall you are? If you stand behind here, no one will even be able to see you!” It brought tears to my eyes how quickly he came up with that, and how sincere he was. The child agreed, but froze when it was his turn, but that’s ok, because at least he got up there.
After that, Ace began talking about the donation. He brought Kayla (the hospitals Junior Volunteer of the Year and a former patient) up to accept the check, and told the story about how the gift started with a goal of $1000, and ended at $7,777.77… thanks to his Highrollers.
After the ceremony, Ace wanted to go room to room throughout the hospital, meeting the kids and singing to them. We all went, and Ace continued to be able to connect with the kids in his amazing way. They loved him, and he brought the brightest smiles to their faces.
The cutest part of the floor visits was when Ace was crouching down in a doorway of a little girl's room. She looked like she was 3, but really was 5 or 6. She walked to him and Ace asked her name. The talked a little bit, then she threw her arms around him and gave him a big hug, and kissed him on the cheek! Then she turned around and ran back into her room, and it was SO ADORABLE. Of course, we all made her do it all over again so we could catch it on camera ;)
After doing the 2 large floors (that took about 2-2 ½ hours), the rest of us needed to eat, but Ace said he wanted to finish the smallest 3rd floor before he ate. He made sure he saw every single patient before he rested and ate. After he finished, he ate a brief lunch and thanked me again for coming and putting a face to his wonderful fans. Ace was rushed off to a radio interview, but I have no doubt that if had had the time, he would have stayed with those kids all day.
