When the Tate sisters decided to enter GL’s Sing In to Win contest in hopes of winning Jonas tickets for their little sister, they never dreamed their story would end like this.
Our little sister Elizabeth only has three dreams in life. Her first dream is to meet the Jonas Brothers. The second is to have her own web show, and her third and final dream is to be on the cover of a magazine.
So you’re either thinking, “That’s so cool!” or “Yeah, right! Keep dreaming!” Well, we think it’s only a matter of time before all of her dreams come true—and we’ll do anything to help her out. A lot of people probably wonder why we care so much. Our reason is simple: without Elizabeth, we definitely wouldn’t be the same people that we are today.
Elizabeth, who we call “Bitsy,” has Down syndrome. Down syndrome is a mental and physical disability. It is not a disease and it isn’t contagious. Down syndrome happens before birth so you don’t need to be worried about suddenly being diagnosed with Down syndrome. Although she learns at a slower rate than other kids her age, she enjoys many of the same things. She REALLY loves singing, which is why she loves the Jonas Brothers so much! She calls Kevin, Joe, and Nick her “boys,” and has “band rehearsal” with them almost daily.
On July 2nd, the entry deadline, I checked my email about fifteen minutes before leaving to go to a friend’s house. At the top of my 500 or so unread emails, I saw one from GL announcing their Jonas Brothers Sing In to Win contest.
Bitsy had just been talking about how she wanted to go to the JoBros concert, but my parents didn’t think it was possible. I called my younger sister Julianna, and asked her if she wanted to enter the contest with me for Bitsy.
“Of course!” She replied excitedly. We sand the first verse and chorus of “Burnin’ Up,” which is Bitsy’s favorite Jonas Brothers song. In a matter of less than ten minutes, we rehearsed once, recorded our video and sent it to Girls’ Life without even reviewing it. All the while we were thinking, “There’s no way anyone is going to see it.”
So we went on with our lives without thinking twice about our entry. Julianna left on a mission trip on July 6th, and I started Driver’s Education classes. While waiting for my dad to pick me up on July 7th, I remembered that the Top 10 were going to be announced that day. Skeptical, yet hopeful, I pulled up the Girls’ Life voting website on my iTouch.
When I scrolled down and saw that our video was on the page, I was in shock. Right then, my dad pulled up and I ran out to the car. “Dad, you won’t believe what happened!” I exclaimed, and then showed him the voting page. He had no idea that we had even entered the contest and was as surprised as I was! I called my older sister, Emily, and told her what happened. She made a Facebook event page detailing the contest, asking people to vote for us so Elizabeth could meet “her boys.”
When I got home that afternoon, 400 people had been invited to vote for Elizabeth. Since it also happened to be my mom’s birthday, my family went to dinner, and then came back home for dessert. Imagine our shock when I turned on my computer again and saw that more than 1,000 people had been invited to vote!
My mom and Emily left on July 8th to go to Emily’s college orientation. Even though the weekend was supposed to be about getting acquainted with her new school, Emily and my mom spent every free minute they had in the hotel room voting for Elizabeth. Even Emily’s admissions counselor and some of her new classmates volunteered to vote.
Back at home, the contest seemed to be all people could talk about! I went to a graduation party, and people bombarded me with questions as soon as I walked up. “How are we doing? Is she still in the lead?” Even people whom I have never talked to contacted me on Facebook, asking, “What can I do to help?”
During the course of voting, our video fell and rebounded time and again, prompting more and more Facebook friends to forward the event page to their friends. By the time voting ended at midnight on July 12th, we won with 3,034,553 votes, thanks to the help of more than 14,000 people from across the United States and around the world, including the United Arab Emirates, England, and Australia. Julianna and I had absolutely no idea that our spontaneous decision to try to win something for Bitsy would turn into such a “web sensation.”
We’d won the contest and scored the free tickets, but Elizabeth REALLY wanted to meet the Jonas Brothers in person. So, I put together a press packet detailing our story and how much Elizabeth really wanted to meet Kevin, Joe, and Nick. After sending the packet out to seven Jonas Brothers affiliates, I got an email back from one company saying that they would be delighted to give us three Meet and Greet passes! This was truly a shock to my family, since Meet and Greet passes typically run about $1,000 for three people. Julianna, Elizabeth and I were going to meet the JoBros. We couldn’t wait!
On July 25th, my family and two of our good friends, Katie and Emilee Bubb, drove to Pittsburgh for the concert. After a long car ride, we arrived at Mellon Arena at 3:30 p.m. and picked up our tickets and meet and greet passes. It started to rain, and Elizabeth wasn’t happy because she didn’t want her hair to be messed up when she met her boys!
Luckily, the skies cleared up and her hair was fine. Our meet and greet was supposed to start at 5, so we went to the assigned entrance at 4 o’clock. We were the first ones in line! Five came and went…and we were still waiting at six. By this time, Bitsy was incredibly restless. She had been awake for ten hours, waiting outside in high humidity, and was getting REALLY impatient. She was exhausted. Luckily, we were able to console her and keep her occupied until it was time to go in. Finally, at 6:20, the doors opened! Even though we only got three meet and greet passes, my dad got to escort Elizabeth, since she has special needs.
Once inside, we had to wait even longer. Finally, it was time. Elizabeth could hardly contain her excitement as the doors opened. The room was divided in half by a black curtain, which made the meet and greet somewhat private. When we walked past the black curtain, the first person Elizabeth saw was Kevin! He is her favorite brother, and she couldn’t stop smiling after he gave her a hug. When Nick came over to say hi, she shied away and tried to hide behind me. “He is so cute!” she said to me afterward. Elizabeth finally did give him a high five. When, Joe came over to Elizabeth, she gave him a copy of the press packet, including a picture of herself. Then, their photographer took a picture of us with the Jonas Brothers. As we were walking out of the room, Elizabeth just kept smiling and laughing. She had finally met her boys!
While we were meeting the Jonas Brothers, Katie, Emilee, and our mom went to find our seats. Our tickets said “Level E,” so they thought that our seats would be about mid-level. After searching all around for our seats, they found an usher who pointed out what seemed like priority seating, saying “Oh, you guys are down there.” Our seats were in line with center stage, almost at eye level with the performers! The seats were better than anything we could have imagined.
The first opening act was a group called Honor Society, whom the Jonas Brothers just signed to their record label. The second opening act was The Wonder Girls, a popular group in Asia. The English version of their single “Nobody,” was just released on iTunes. The final opening act was Jordin Sparks. As Jordin finished her third song, my dad took us out to buy t-shirts.
On the way back from getting our t-shirts, a lady from the Verizon team asked us if we wanted to enter in a contest to win an autographed kickball from the Jonas Brothers. We looked at each other and asked, “All right, how do we sign up?” After the contest was explained, we all signed up thinking “Might as well, it’ll be fun, though we probably won’t win.” Shortly after we got back to our seats, our mom received a call notifying her that Emilee had won the kickball! Katie, Emilee, and my mom then went out to the Verizon table, and the people there told them that Emilee would get the kickball after the show. We were all so excited—the night just kept getting better and better!
Finally, the Jonas Brothers started their set, opening up with “Paranoid,” which is another one of Elizabeth’s favorite songs! She jumped from her seat dancing and singing. She even taught me a few dance moves! During “That’s Just the Way We Roll,” someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around, and saw a lady holding a glossy autographed picture of the JoBros. “It’s for your little sister,” she said. In disbelief, I handed the photo to my mom, who was speechless. I turned back to the lady and said thank you. “Oh, it’s no problem. I love seeing her dance; she seems like such a sweet little girl!” She said, gesturing toward Elizabeth. Moments later, she returned, giving Bitsy her limited edition Ramp Pass. Once again, Bitsy’s night was made thanks to the kindness of a stranger.
The night wasn’t over yet! The Jonas Brothers played their set, ending with “Burnin’ Up.” By this time, Elizabeth was exhausted! My mom went outside to find Seth, the Verizon representative, who told us to pick up the kickball after the show. He asked us to wait inside of Mellon Arena for a few more minutes because they were still trying to get everything from the Verizon kiosk packed up.
While we were waiting, the Wonder Girls were having a meet and greet in the lobby. Elizabeth asked my dad if we could meet them, but the line was extremely long so my dad said no. After waiting for about fifteen minutes, the line dwindled and my dad told her that we could meet them after all. Elizabeth was all smiles as we got in line to get our picture taken with the Wonder Girls.
After we took a few photos, we went outside and found Seth. He asked us to wait by the bus until his brother said we could get the kickball. While we were waiting, we all signed the bus; like many of the girls who attend their concerts. After about five minutes, the bus door opened and Warren, Seth’s brother, invited us inside.
In disbelief, all seven of us piled onto the iconic tour bus. Seth made the official kickball presentation to Emilee, telling us that the kickball was one in 34 in the world! He then went on to say that everyone who wins a kickball is entered into a contest, and in October there is going to be a drawing for a chance to play kickball with the JoBros!
After this surprising announcement, my family stayed on the bus for another thirty minutes talking with Seth and Warren. My mom had mentioned something about the GL contest earlier, and Seth asked Julianna and me about it.
After we relayed the events of the past two weeks, they said that our story was definitely unique and unlike anything they had ever heard. It was getting late, and Elizabeth was getting restless so we said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel. We were all shocked and amazed at everything that had happened that night! Who knew that a spontaneous decision would explode into a weekend full of once in a lifetime experiences?!
We are still surprised when people say, “That is awesome that you entered for your little sister, I would never have done that.” We didn’t even give it a second thought! As Julianna says, it’s easy not to be selfish when you grow up with a sister who is so selfless. Most of all though, we are so grateful and inspired by the many strangers who took time from their busy lives to “sit and click” so a nine-year-old little girl with Down syndrome could realize one of her dreams.
