Pierce

I wish to meet Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple.

A message from our Wish friends at the Greater Bay Area Make-A-Wish chapter in California:

Yesterday I had the honor of escorting 16 year old Pierce on his Apple wish to meet Steve Jobs!!  It was a truly magical day for Pierce, his family, all the folks at Apple and for me!!

Pierce, together with his Mom, Dad, and older brother, arrived at Apple Headquarters around 9:30 Monday morning. The first stop was to meet with the itunes team. Pierce had created a short movie of his wish experience so far on his Apple Notebook for everyone to see. It was really neat, touching and a pleasant surprise for everyone. Pierce did great asking questions and interacting with everyone. The itunes team let him see the itunes website that was released today, so he saw it before the public!! He picked the first 9 staff song choices for this week, www.itunes.com. His favorite artist is Bruce Springsteen, his mom always had in on to and from hospital and doctor visits!! They also gave Pierce many, many gifts - over 40 cd's, grills (the stuff you put on your teeth to make them look gold - from some band) t-shirts and a signed skateboard from Yellowcard. He was very excited!

From here we went to the Reliability Lab - to try to break things! Pierce had a blast trying dropping laptops and ipods!  There were black curtains everywhere hiding new products and top secret products - we had to watch the boys closely to make sure they did not peek. Pierce asked everyone and anybody - "what are you working on?" "what new product is coming out?" "what is behind the black curtain?" He was very determined to "crack" somebody but no one gave away any information!

Next was lunch time with the VP of itunes, VP of ipod and the Apples director of PR. Pierce had a great lunch among what seemed to be hundreds of Apple staff. During lunch Pierce was presented with not one but TWO ipods - the nano and new video ipod and $300 worth of itunes gift cards. Pierce's brother was given $100 at itunes.

After lunch we went to the Modeling Lab. This was one of coolest places Pierce, his family, and I had ever been. This is where they create all the products for the first time, all the parts, everything - if they like it goes somewhere else for manufacturing. More black curtain here!! This team of 13 (13 guys to build all of Apples models) were so excited to have Pierce as a special guest. They were definitely science-y, nerdy guys (in the best way) so I don't think they have many visitors so they were extra pumped to have Pierce there. They showed Pierce all the machines, how they worked, let him try them, made him parts, gave him posters, shirts, and a special, costume modeling trophy!  It was all SO amazing.

From here it was off to the highlight of the day to MEET STEVE JOBS!!! We all waited in the lobby for Steve to come out.  He shook hands with everyone and said hello but then said "okay let's go talk Pierce" and took Pierce into his private conference room. The two (just the two of them) talked for OVER two hours!! When Pierce came out he was beaming! The truly touching part came when Pierce took out a signed ipod print from Steve.

Steve normally doesn't do any autographs and the staff had told Pierce this but Steve not only signed but wrote "Pierce, You know what a special gift life is, make something magical of yours, Steve." Pierce's mom had to leave because she got so emotional and our Apple contacts got watery eyed. It was an extremely moving moment!!

The day was topped off with a visit to the gift store where Pierce bought lots of souvenirs to remember him of his very special day.

When Pierce was getting back in the limo he said in regards to have meeting Steve Jobs that he now "felt funny inside" - I told him that was a good thing!!

It was a great day - Pierce is a very special young man!

From Pierce:

Dear Make-A-Wish,

My wish was so magical. I can't even begin to thank you for all your work in making my wish come true! We all loved Apple, however the best part for me was the time spent with Mr. Jobs. It's something I will treasure my whole life.

Love,

Pierce