MacKenzie Stuck hadn?t seen Kimmie Meissner in about a year. But during intermission of Saturday night?s Kimmie?s Angels on Ice show at 1st Mariner Arena, Stuck shared a moment with Meissner when the 10-year-old came to the front row to hug her favorite figure skater.
“She came walking down and it was great,” Meissner said. “It was so exciting to see her. [MacKenzie?s] got her hair back, it?s pretty exciting.”
Stuck was among the members of the Cool Kids Campaign in attendance for the program Meissner organized to raise funding for the cancer patients she called “the real stars of the show.”
“It was really cool just to see her again,” Stuck, a Mount Airy resident, said. “The last time Isaw her was last year. It just makes me want to smile inside.”
Meissner, 17, and a cast of Olympians and National and World Champions skated for about two hours before a very intimate crowd of about 4,000.
“They were so into it,” said Meissner, the reigning U.S. national champion. “That was the best part about it all.”
Saturday?s performance featured more current music than the skaters perform to during competitive shows, as they catered the show to a younger audience.
“We just really try to remember that the kids are still kids,” Cool Kids Campaign director and co-founder Sharon Perfetti said. “We just try to come up with programs that remind them that they?re still kids.”
Meissner, a Bel Air resident who competed in the 2006 Winter Olympics, contacted Olympic silver medalists Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto earlier this summer about doing the show.
“It?s a wonderful cause and it?s nice for us to get the opportunity to take part in a show that?s more than just an entertainment show,” Agosto said. “It?s nice for us to be able to do what we do to raise money for a good cause.”
The skaters could all take something from the show, too. Meissner gets her inspiration from the Cool Kids.
“I didn?t know at first the kids were going to be there,” Meissner said. “But it was so special. It didn?t really matter about how you skate, its just great that everyone came together to do this show.”
Now Meissner turns her focus to college. She missed Delaware?s freshman orientation Saturday. She left open the possibility of bringing another show to Baltimore.
“Right now, I?m excited and glad its over, because I was pretty nervous about it,” Meissner said. “I had a great time.”
