As told by Charlie’s Dad,

Charlie said it was the best day of his life!

Charlie has Muscular Dystrophy and is in a wheelchair. Charlie and the whole family are Phillies fans. Charlie’s wish was to meet Ryan Howard from the Phillies. It was a great day from beginning to end. First a specially equipped van picked up Charlie, myself, his mom and two sisters at our home and drove straight away to the stadium. When we arrived, we were met and escorted by stadium representatives. They treated us like royalty.

First, we received a tour of the back part of the stadium and the executive offices. We saw all the trophies, the media hall and the boardroom. Then we were wheeled right up to watch the batting practice. After a short time, Ryan Howard came over to meet and speak with Charlie. He spent a good amount of time with Charlie. Charlie was very excited to speak with him. The Phillies gave us so many gifts; a Jersey, a bat, a ball and lots of other things. Ryan Howard signed everything for Charlie!!! Then, while we were there, Shane Victorino came over to speak to us. It was great!  

Afterwards, we went for the rest of the stadium tour…..EVERYONE went out of their way to make it a great day….. we went to the broadcast booth and Charlie was able to wheel right up, check out the controls and use the headphones. We met Chris Wheeler and Tom McCarthy. They were terrific. Charlie thought the booth was really cool because you see the broadcast booth shown on TV when the game is on… and here we were in the booth!Then we entered the control room for the whole stadium, WOW…it was really cool for Charlie to see all the control stations that go into producing the game. We learned how they work the Jumbotron and saw the list of music for each player. It was awesome!!!