Jonas Bros. Devotees Swarm Rox Stadium

NOTE: Originally posted Thursday, Aug. 26, 2010
Story and photos by Lisa E. Crowley
Brockton Post
BROCKTON—A quartet of Rhode Island teenagers hooted and hollered and sang snippets of their favorite Jonas Brothers songs—a chorus of lyrics that did not go unnoticed by hearthrob Nick Jonas, whose position playing third base for a softball game Thursday afternoon at Campanelli Stadium was within earshot of the exuberant girls.
“He gave us a thumbs up,” said Crystal Ocasio, 16, of Johnston, R.I., who with friends Sarah Wilson, Stephanie DuPuis, and Emily Gomes (Pictured below with thumbs up) joined nearly 5,000 Jonas Brothers fans who came from near and far for a softball game and Jonas Bros. extravaganza that challenged teenagers to pledge not to text-while-driving.
The driving awareness program, called “X the Text,” is sponsored by Allstate Insurance Company and features the Jonas Brothers as ball players—a team called the “Road Dogs,” which evolved last year from after show, blow-off-steam games between the brothers, their road crews and others in the band’s entourage into a public safety extravaganza.
The Road Dogs--made up of Nick, Joe (Pictured right throwing softball) and Kevin Jonas and extended members of the road crew--invades minor league stadiums with a road show blitz that not only delights hordes of screaming fans who may or may not have tickets to a Jonas Brothers concert at a nearby stadium later that night, but also promotes safe driving and the best part-- it's all free for their fans.
Kevin Jonas (#19 pictured below cheering runs by the Road Dogs) during interviews with local media before the game said driving-while-texting is dangerous and can be prevented.
“A lot of people are out there doing it and everybody is guilty of doing it,” Jonas said. “I think if you can raise awareness it can make a difference,” he said.
The Road Dogs cavalcade included T-shirt giveaways and the Jonas Brothers giving their own no-text pledge on the field with fans who received autographed shirts.
All fans who took the pledge with a thumbprint signature--hence thumbs up--received a key chain and other Jonas Brothers gifts.
Outside the stadium fans signed their autographs on the Road Dogs' bus—a sleek, silver carriage that features larger-than-life images of the three brothers in their softball uniforms.
Since “X the Text” began last November, the initiative has collected more than 85,000 pledges from teenagers.
The Jonas Brothers will play in 12 “X the Text” softball games this summer, the next in Camden, N.J., before a concert at Susquehanna Bank Center—all opportunities for their rabid fans to get close to the heartthrobs.
Emily Gomes, of Lincoln, R.I., who drove her three friends from Rhode Island to the Brockton softball game, said she has taken the no-text pledge and will take it to heart as the girls travel down Route 24 to the Comcast Center in Mansfield for the second of two Jonas Brothers concerts.
The girls said they won the tickets from Boston radio station Kiss-108 FM, and for DuPuis and Gomes it’s their 15th Jonas Brothers concert—a musical trek that has taken them to six states and shows as far away as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
“We love them,” said Sarah Wilson, who added the four met on an online social networking site begun by the band—whose roots were in Christian music until they skyrocketed to superstardom with the Disney movie “Camp Rock,” and a subsequent television show.
“Yeah, I’m a Jesus freak,” Wilson said, “and I love all their popular stuff, but I love their worship music the best,” she said.
While teens shouted and screamed when the Jonas Brothers came to bat, ran the bases, caught a ball, or made a play, the Road Dogs’ opponents, Marquis Jet Flyers, a team of friends and employees of Marquis Jet —a Boston and New York based private jet travel company--had the joy of playing with the celebrities, but tasted the agony of defeat.
The Road Dogs beat the Flyers 25-17, and at one point the Road Dogs led 15-2.
“They kicked our butt. They got the trophy,” said Mike Lynch, a Scituate resident who was invited to play by longtime friend William J. Allard, a Cohasset resident and one of the founders of Marquis Jet. (Pictured below with Nick Jonas)
Michelle Southworth, a Hingham resident whose husband Wayne plays Sunday softball with Marquis Jet employees and friends said the Sunday games are competitive- including cuts and knocked out teeth—and the Flyers didn’t want to lose to the celebrity superstars.
“They said they wanted to kick those boys’ butts,” Southworth said with a smile.
Lynch said despite the loss the game was a lot of fun and being invited to play in the game impressed his 15-year-old daughter Kelsey Anne, a Jonas Brothers devotee who went to last night’s concert at Comcast Center and went on stage with a group of other fans picked out of the crowd by the brothers to perform a 2010 pop version of “Musical Chairs” with the band.
The softball game, Lynch said, was his time to shine.
Kelsey Anne, Lynch said, (Pictured below with teammate Hingham resident Jeff Cashman) scored the tickets for last night’s show-- including a visit to the sound check before the concert--all by herself, but for today’s softball game, Dad was the one with the all-access tickets.
“I got some points today,” Lynch said.
Many of the fans tried to explain the mania behind the band and ticked off numerous songs whose lyrics play at heart strings and call to mind feelings of longing for love lost and bliss in love found.
One woman, Webster resident Ashley Sweeney, a 21-year-old Iota Delta Nu sorority sister at UMass Dartmouth, said a Jonas Brothers concert last year helped soothe the pain of her father David’s death days before the concert.
“My father’s death was really, really hard on us, but my mother, my family, my friends, all said ‘Go, Dad loved music, he knows you love the Jonas Brothers—go,’” Sweeney said.
She went to the show and doesn’t regret it. Sweeney (Pictured above with friend Amanda) held back tears as she recalled the Jonas Brothers playing two songs at that concert, "Fly With Me," and "Black Key," which reminded her of her father and sent waves of chills and goose bumps up and down her body.
“It really helped. I would just really like to thank them,” Sweeney said.
Sweeney, with her friend Amanda Dolan, a Hingham resident, said she is one of the “older” Jonas Brothers fans and people might think she’s silly, but she loves the music, the lyrics, and Nick, Joe and Kevin.
“I’ll do anything for them,” Sweeney said, adding she drove 90 minutes from Webster, Mass., for the game. “It was the longest ride,” she said.
Although many said it was the music and lyrics that attracted them to the band, an unabashed common theme pulsed through the throngs of mostly teenage girls at Campanelli Stadium who shouted wedding proposals and screeched undying love, and while they said the Jonas boys are excellent role models, fantastic musicians and lyricists, there are other reasons to fall in love with three young men living a teenager’s rock star dream.
“They’re cute,” said Zabrinah Kelle, 15, of Brockton, whose 14-year-old friend Victoria Viola, added, “nice butts,” to which their 14-year-old pal Allison Lemack noted, “they’re hotties.”