Taking a brief break from fight training ,Peter Facinelli attended a Red Cross Event in Virginia on Saturday. The event was a blood drive and signing and plenty of people showed up for both!Red Cross officials said a couple thousand donors came to the blood drive.
Here is a fan encounter from Linda who attended the event:
We got to the mall a little before 12 and there was a huge crowd of mostly teens and their Moms. It was so chaotic at first that we accidentally stood in the wrong line for 20 minutes and ended up at the very end of the real line. Everyone was told that it was a $25 admission to get him to sign an autograph and $40 for a picture with him (proceeds to go to the Red Cross). In the beginning they also offered to personalize the professional pictures, but they turned out to be too time consuming.
Even after a grueling red-eye from Vancouver, he came out smiling and looking very upbeat. During the time between autographs, he would sit down on the side of the stage for pictures and talk to the screaming girls by the stage. His manager and the rest of the staff that were there were trying to move things along quickly, but he still stopped to give hugs, talk to the fans, and answer questions.
The people at the end of the line were very worried that they would wait and never get to see him, but one of his staff walked around and assured everyone that Peter had pledged to stay as long as people were willing to pay for his autograph. Around 2pm he actually walked to the back of the line and said something to the people waiting, but it was impossible to hear him over the ear-piercing screams of the girls. At about 3:30, the staff came around again and announced that the photographer was leaving at 4pm and they would only be able to do personal photos and autographs after that. This of course caused some hysteria in the line, but I got through just before 4pm so I’m not sure what happened with that.
I really wanted to tell him while I was up there how much I appreciated him taking the time to do that for such a great charity, and maybe get one of those hugs he was giving out, but instead I think I just said “thanks for doing this” and kept repeating my name for the autograph. Oh how the nerves kick in when you’re in the vicinity of such a handsome devil. He was very friendly, however, and said, “Oh, Linda is my sister’s name!” I don’t know that he will want to go through this experience again, but he was such a lovely person that I consider it four hours well spent.
The picture of the blonde girl with the gray sweater with him is me. You can see in that picture where a local Halloween store painted a backdrop for the photos which I thought was nice.
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