Last night was larger than life for 7-year-old Bristol Township resident Bobby Naylor, who got to meet his favorite band, the Backstreet Boys.
The student at the Easter Seal Society for Handicapped Children and Adults in Middletown and his family traveled in style via a white stretch limousine to the First Union Center to see the band perform the first of its two-show stop in Philadelphia on its Black and Blue World Tour. The band will perform again tonight at 7:30.
Excitement and anxiety built for Bobby, during the more than three-hour wait from the time he arrived at the First Union Center until the time he finally focused his big brown eyes on his five heroes. |
Bobby Naylor is surrounded by the Backstreet Boys last night before the group took the stage at the First Union Center. |
Rob Naylor puts his son, Bobby, into a white stretch limousine for a ride to the Backstreet Boys concert last night. |
Bobby and others who have cerebral palsy have impaired muscle control caused by nerve or brain damage occurring about the time of birth. It has limited Bobby's motor skills and his speech, because he can't control the facial muscles needed for speech. In addition, he is unable to feed himself and can eat only soft foods.
According to his mother, Marie, Bobby's interest in the Backstreet Boys started when she purchased the group's "Live from Orlando" videotape for her daughter Brittany in 1998. Bobby immediately took to it, dancing and trying to sing with his toy microphone all summer. Come September, both his parents and his teachers at the Easter Seal Society noticed improvement with his verbalizations.
After Bobby watched the videotape repeatedly, his father, Rob Naylor, said, the child could pronounce B's. He could say Bobby and Brian.
Since the first time he watched the videotape, Bobby was hooked and wanted to meet the Backstreet Boys. |