SIDENOTE: I just wanted to say real quick that what you're about to read is exactly the kind of thing that makes me so damn proud to be a Backstreet Fan that I wanna run through my campus and let everyone know just how awesome those guys really are

Last night was larger than life for 7-year-old Bristol Township resident Bobby Naylor, who got to meet his favorite band, the Backstreet Boys.

The student at the Easter Seal Society for Handicapped Children and Adults in Middletown and his family traveled in style via a white stretch limousine to the First Union Center to see the band perform the first of its two-show stop in Philadelphia on its Black and Blue World Tour. The band will perform again tonight at 7:30.

Excitement and anxiety built for Bobby, during the more than three-hour wait from the time he arrived at the First Union Center until the time he finally focused his big brown eyes on his five heroes.

The trip was set up by The Sunshine Foundation, which grants the wishes of terminally ill, handicapped and abused children.

Although tickets to the concert and the limousine ride were promised to Bobby weeks ago, a meeting between Bobby and his idols didn't come together until 4 p.m. on Monday.

According to Sunshine Foundation volunteer Kelly Dansky, tickets and the limo ride weren't enough. "That wasn't his wish, so we couldn't stop trying," Dansky said. The Backstreet Boys has done more than just help Bobby become motivated with his schoolwork and socialization. His love for the band and its music has helped him with verbalization, something that doesn't come easy for him.

Bobby and others who have cerebral palsy have impaired muscle control caused by nerve or brain damage occurring about the time of birth. It has limited Bobby's motor skills and his speech, because he can't control the facial muscles needed for speech. In addition, he is unable to feed himself and can eat only soft foods.

According to his mother, Marie, Bobby's interest in the Backstreet Boys started when she purchased the group's "Live from Orlando" videotape for her daughter Brittany in 1998. Bobby immediately took to it, dancing and trying to sing with his toy microphone all summer. Come September, both his parents and his teachers at the Easter Seal Society noticed improvement with his verbalizations.

After Bobby watched the videotape repeatedly, his father, Rob Naylor, said, the child could pronounce B's. He could say Bobby and Brian.

Since the first time he watched the videotape, Bobby was hooked and wanted to meet the Backstreet Boys.

And at approximately 8:30 p.m. last night, Bobby got his wish when the five members of the boy band bent over to hug Bobby or shake his hand.

Brian Littrell is Bobby's favorite Backstreet Boy, and Bobby's happy to tell you just that verbally and also on his DynaVox.

A DynaVox is an augmentative communication device that lets Bobby speak through it by touching a computerized "touch screen." He has two pages of Backstreet Boys conversation starters programmed into his DynaVox so he can talk about his favorite band.

Littrell was visibly touched when Bobby pushed a symbol on his DynaVox which said "Do you know Brian [Littrell] had an operation on his heart? He is all better now."

"Wow," Littrell said.

Band member Kevin Richardson told Bobby, "I like your outfit," referring to his Halloween costume, a copy of the outfit the Backstreet Boys wore during its Millennium Tour.

Bobby's mom, Marie, made the costume featuring Bobby as Brian. She didn't stop there. She created the rest of the group with papier-mache heads and matching costumes, rigging the four characters to his wheelchair.

The group had seen pictures of the costume, and Richardson told Bobby, "That was awesome."

And so is Bobby's social calendar, which doesn't end with last night's concert. He'll be one of seven children-guests at the Sunshine Foundation's Annual Ball in Cherry Hill on Saturday. The others will find out that their wish, like Bobby's, will come true.