College student Laura Tellado, who suffers from Spina Bifida, authors the blog “Holdin’ Out for A Hero,” where she writes about a different celebrity each day that she’s tried to contact in hopes that they can become a new spokesperson for the condition.
This week, she told the story of her meeting with Fox News’ Bill Hemmer — though he worked at CNN at the time — who she got to meet through an organization called New Hope for Kids when she was 17: “Their reaction was one of surprise, perhaps amusement, at the news that a 17-year-old girl wanted to meet a journalist for her big, fat, once-in-a-lifetime wish! My response probably was along the lines of, ‘Have you actually seen Bill Hemmer?'”
During their meeting, Hemmer had quite the impact on Laura and he appears to have remained in contact with her, “I have Bill and New Hope for Kids to thank for changing my career goals (I had studied theatre in high school!). To this day, we keep in touch every now and then.” She continues, “Whenever I achieve something, even a small milestone, I love sharing it with him, and he is always cheering me on.”
You can read more about her goal here. At the end of her post, she asks Hemmer to be her “hero” and says, “You never know the impact a particular person will have on your life, whether intentional or not. But that is exactly what has happened in regards to you. You not only touched my life — you changed it completely, and for the better. I am now putting to good use some long-dormant abilities through this blog!”
Update: We received an email from Ms. Tellado thanking us for linking to her site as traffic has gone up significantly. (Well done, everyone.) She also told us that Hemmer responded to her request, saying: “You are one special young lady! I am honored to be asked. And I am considering your offer.” You can read her post about that here.