Ga. boy battling cancer gets the movie star treatment with box office poster
Published 2:05 pm Sunday, May 8, 2016
- Gabriel “Tater” Singleton, 7, poses with the poster that shows him as the star of the upcoming movie “Baywatch.” A message from “The Rock,” actor Dwayne Johnson, is visible.
DALTON, Ga. — Things have gone a bit “Hollywood” for a young Georgia boy battling a rare cancer since he met his quite famous hero last week. Some might even say there’s a new movie star in town.
Seven-year-old Gabriel “Tater” Singleton of Dalton, Georgia — who has inspired many with his now-viral story of his more than four-year-long battle with a rare form of cancer called Neuroblastoma — was treated to the movie-star treatment following a special visit with actor and professional wrestler, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Singleton recently got to meet his hero who he says inspires him in Savannah, Georgia on the set of Johnson’s new film “Baywatch.”
During the visit, Singleton enjoyed all of the time he spent with Johnson, from arm wrestling to receiving a special gift that made him “grin from ear-to-ear,” Lulu Singleton, his mother, said.
Johnson presented Singleton with a full-size “Baywatch” movie poster featuring Singleton as Johnson’s character.
The poster was created by The For The Win Project — a California-based organization that gives “children in special circumstances a chance to be their favorite heroes,” according to the foundation’s website.
Jaimie Trueblood and Jesse Wilson, co-founders of the foundation, visited the Singletons a few weeks before Tater met with Johnson in Savannah, Georgia to take photos for the poster.
“They came from California and they shot lots of pictures of Tater in my front yard,” Lulu Singleton said. “They made the poster for Tater and it is absolutely amazing.”
Trueblood and Wilson shared a photo of the two with Singleton on their Facebook page.
“We can’t resist taking photos with big movie stars like Tater. Especially after you watch them crush Dwayne The Rock Johnson in an arm wrestling match on the set of the new Baywatch movie,” the post read.
Trueblood and Wilson said “the Rock kindly made Tater’s one-of-a-kind movie poster even more one-of-a-kind” by writing a message to Tater on it: To: My buddy Tater! Thank you for hangin’ with me! You’re my inspiration … You’re a true Boss! Your Bud – Rock.”
Johnson shared a video on his Instagram page of him giving Tater the poster and wrote about the moment being quite emotional for him.
“I wish you guys could have seen his face when I turned this movie poster around,” Johnson wrote. “When I told him ‘We’re all so inspired by you, especially me,’ and looked down at him and saw him lookin’ up at me, nodding his head with those big eyes, good lord I almost lost it.”
Johnson continued, “Despite my almost tearing up like a baby and ruining my tough guy image, the greatest and I think most beautiful irony about Tater is that this very special little boy has no idea just how much he inspires all of us around him.”
Lulu Singleton said Johnson “mentioned a lot that Gabriel inspires him and he thinks he’s a lot tougher and stronger than he is and he got a little emotional. It was just a really touching moment.”
Singleton, who has been back this week visiting schools with his “partner,” Whitfield County, Georgia Sheriff’s Office Deputy Shawn Giles, has been giving signed copies of the poster to people who mean a lot to him, including Giles and Sheriff Scott Chitwood, Lulu Singleton said.
“One of his dreams was to become a police officer and Sheriff Chitwood and Deputy Shawn Giles are really good friends of ours and they made that dream come true for Tater,” said Lulu Singleton. “He loves Shawn and Sheriff Chitwood so he wanted to make sure they got one of his posters.”
Standridge writes for the Dalton, Georgia Daily Times.
