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Alise Gros loves Tim McGraw, and she has the M&Ms to prove it.
“I gave Tim McGraw some M&Ms, and he shared them with me,” said 7-year-old Alise Gros of Lockport. “They said, ‘Alise loves Tim’ on them.”
Gros recently got to meet the country music superstar and his wife Faith Hill through the Louisiana State Police Troop C Trooper’s Association and the troop’s Grant-A-Wish Program, and the personalized M&Ms were just one of several requests the little girl was granted on a trip to meet the stars in Las Vegas.
When the young girl, who suffers from cerebral palsy and a seizure disorder, was asked what she wished for most in the world, the answer was simple.
“I wanted to sing the ‘Bird in a Tree’ song (Last Dollar) and dance with Tim McGraw,” Gros said. “I like his song ‘Truck Yeah,’ too, but we didn’t get to sing that one.”
Since 1989, Troop C’s Grant-A-Wish Program has worked to fulfill wishes just like Alise’s for children in Troop C who have a life-altering or life-threatening illness and to provide these trips at no cost to the family. Gros’s wish hit close to home with the program – the little girl’s father is an officer with Troop C and he was head of the program before he stepped down after Alise’s birth.
“We had been after Keith and Lynette, Alise’s parents, for years to arrange a wish, but everyone wanted to wait until she was old enough to decide what she really wanted to do,” said Troop C trooper Gilbert Dardar, who has overseen the Grant-a-Wish program since 2002. “She’s a special little girl, and we wanted to help make her dreams come true.”
The program is funded through private donations, fundraisers and a corporate sponsorship program, and wishes are granted on a case-by-case basis.
“We are able to grant five or six wishes a year,” Dardar said. “We have an outstanding community, and I think people are happy to give because they know it is going to local child.”
Alise’s trip took several months to plan, and the itinerary also included a visit to M&M World, where the child had her personalized ‘Alise loves Tim’ candies prepared. The trip also included a pre-opening, members-only tour of the Lied Children’s Discovery Museum.
“Alise was born four months early and suffered brain hemorrhages,” said her father Keith Gros. “She weighed 1.4 pounds and was in ICU for five months. She had several surgeries before leaving hospital, and she has had several in the years since.”
When the Gros’s finally got to bring their daughter home, they had no idea they would be raising McGraw’s biggest fan.
“She likes music in general, but my wife and I mostly listen to country,” Gros said. “When ‘Last Dollar’ came out a few years ago, she was always saying ‘I want to hear the song where the kids sing’ or ‘I want to hear the Bird song’ when we would get in the car. We finally figured out what she was talking about, and she fell in love with Tim McGraw when we showed her who he was.”
Six years almost to the day after “Last Dollar” hit the airwaves, the family, including son Roman, 6, (17-month-old brother Roman stayed behind), arrived at the Venetian in Las Vegas to meet their daughter’s idol.
“We went to this backstage VIP area before their Soul to Soul tour concert that night, and they brought us into a little room off the side,” he said. “Alise has this way of standing when she is really excited. She will kind of squat down, put her hands on her face and let out this high-pitched squeal. When Tim walked in, she did just that.”
For 10 minutes, the young girl lived out her wish, singing her favorite song and dancing with the country music star.
“I can’t say enough about Tim and Faith,” Gros said. “They were great, and it was a great experience.”
After meeting the stars, the family took their seats in the audience and watched the concert, unaware that the stars would make their little girl’s wish last a little longer.
“McGraw called Alise to the stage and gave a signed guitar,” Gros said. “She didn’t even sleep that night. The next morning, my wife told her to put her tennis shoes on, and she told us, ‘Those aren’t my tennis shoes. They are my Timmy shoes because I met Tim McGraw’ She comes up with silliest little catch phrases.”
“She is always happy and smiling,” he said. “Unless she is sick or just down right tired, she is always happy. That’s her, in a nut shell.”
Kristy Dardar, left, Lynette Gros, Tim McGraw, Alise Gros, Cole Gros, Faith Hill, Keith Gros and Gilbert Dardar pose for a photo before the country music stars take the stage at the Venetian in Las Vegas. Alise Gros, the daughter of Lynette and Keith, got to meet the stars through the Louisiana State Police Troop C’s Grant-A-Wish Program.
