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Teen Idols Give Back For Disabled

Scott Iskowitz / Tampa Tribune

Joe, Nick and Kevin Jonas, who make up the teen heartthrob group called The Jonas Brothers, sign autographs at Wesley Chapel High School Friday afternoon before the start of a benefit concert.

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By RONNIE BLAIR, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 6, 2007

WESLEY CHAPEL - They stood in the late afternoon sun and the anticipation grew with each person who joined the line in front of the Center for the Arts at Wesley Chapel.

Moms and dads and, yes, some boys were there, but mostly it was girls.

And here is the key point.

Every single one of them could just die.

Really they could.

This is because the Jonas Brothers, the latest pop musical act that makes the young girls swoon, had come to return a favor to a Wesley Chapel man who helped them out in a pinch.

Several months ago, the teen idols saw their travel plans go awry. Jeff Butts, who owns Georgia-based Integrity Jet Charter, knows their manager and learned of their plight.

He arranged a plane. The grateful Jonas Brothers told him to let them know if there was ever anything they could do for him.

There was.

Butts and his wife, Jesslyn, have two children who attend Seven Oaks Elementary in Wesley Chapel.

The school's PTA wants to raise money to build a playground for special-needs students. Principal B.J. Smith said children with such disabilities as autism and cerebral palsy would make use of the playground.

Butts cashed in his favor. In a daring move, he asked the Jonas Brothers, who have a busy concert tour schedule, to hold a benefit show at the arts center.

The place seats 900.

Why, the audacity. Didn't he know they are the Jonas Brothers? They star in music videos. They appear regularly on the Disney Channel. They elicit shrieks of adulation just by showing up.

They said sure. No problem.

'It shows a lot about them,' Butts said.

The Jonas Brothers are Kevin, 19, Joe, 18, and Nick, 15. They are that mixture that comes along every so often of a top-40 sound melded with the poster-on-every-girl's-bedroom-wall look.

Think Hanson. Think New Kids on the Block. If your subscription to Tiger Beat magazine expired in 1971, think the Osmonds.

Victoria Irvine, 9, loves the Jonas Brothers. When she learned she would see them live, she said, she was 'screaming in my head.'

'I think it was more screaming out loud,' her mother, Nancy Irvine, said.

Victoria and her pal Kristina Odom, 9, both wore fresh-out-of-the-box Jonas Brothers T-shirts. The shirts were on sale in front of the center.

'The Jonas Brothers rock,' Kristina said.

Alexis Liona, 9, stayed up most of Thursday night making a Jonas Brothers poster that she brought to the concert. One of the things she likes about the brothers is they are from her aunt's neighborhood in New Jersey.

Jesslyn Butts said the PTA hoped to raise $12,000 with the sold-out concert.

Butts said her daughter Ashley, 10, is a 'huge, huge, huge fan' of the Jonas Brothers. Friday marked the sixth time Ashley has seen them in concert. Ashley's brother, Dawson, 7, also enjoys them.

'The Disney Channel is never changed,' their mother said.

Just before the concert, the Jonas Brothers agreed to hold a meet-and-greet where they would quickly sign autographs.

A few of the children chosen to go first were ushered into a room just off the north side of the arts center. The rest formed a long line down the side of the building.

Inside the autograph room, parents and children waited expectantly for the Jonas Brothers to arrive. They waited a little longer. And a little longer still.

Then, outside, girls started screaming.

Reporter Ronnie Blair can be reached at (813) 948-4218 or rblair@tampatrib.com.

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