A Special Day At The Seacrest Studios Opening In Dallas!
Wednesday was an exciting day for the Ryan Seacrest Foundation as we opened Seacrest Studios at Children’s Medical Center. This studio is the third studio we have built for children’s hospitals, the other two located in Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. It was a special day as Ryan, Selena Gomez and Disney Channel’s “N.B.T.” winner Shealeigh met with patients and broke in the new equipment.
The event kicked off with a breakfast for the attendees followed by interviews with Ryan and Selena on the hospitals red carpet (check out a news segment here). Next up was a great ribbon cutting ceremony, which included speeches from Children’s Executive Vice President Doug Hock, Ryan, Selena, and the Seacrest Studios patient ambassador, Maddie Ferguson. Maddie used some (really big!) scissors to cut the ribbon and officially open the studio.
Everyone then moved toward Seacrest Studios for the first official live broadcast, hosted by Ryan. Ryan led a fun interview, asking questions to the hospital’s Dr. Koh, Maddie, Selena and Shealeigh. There were patients and families lining the studio…but for those that couldn’t head down to the studio to be part of the action, they were able to watch through a live feed to their rooms. Some patients even called down to the studio through the hospital's designated line: 77777 (pretty fun number, if you ask us!). And that’s not all.
Microsoft donated a few of their new Surface tablets to the studio, so Ryan and Selena were able to skype from the studio with patients in their rooms. After the interview was over the fun continued on the Plaza, a performance space created just next to the studio for artists to perform.
Shealeigh took the stage, after being introduced by Radio Disney’s radio host Jake Whetter, and sang 5 amazing songs (2 of them were original music.) After the performance, the Radio Disney Road Team closed out the event with fun games, dances and activities with the patients. It was an exciting and busy day at Children’s Medical Center and we were so happy to be a part of it. A big thank you to the amazing staff at the hospital, Radio Disney, Microsoft, Selena, Shealeigh, DJ Jake and Maddie for helping make it a success.
We also want to give a huge shout out to our founding sponsors, Coca-Cola and E! for their continued support. It is with their help that we are able to continue to build these studios and create special moments for amazing patients.