Amy Grant News and Articles

By MIKE MORRIS

After a week of filming in Sonora, a Hollywood production crew returned to Southern California yesterday and today to begin final editing work on an hour-long show scheduled to air this summer on NBC.

The June Road Productions crew will spend the next few weeks putting together the pilot episode, called "Three Wishes," before NBC executives chose when it will be shown on TV.

Based on the success of that show, NBC executives will decide whether "Three Wishes" will develop into a weekly series profiling different towns around the country, Jerry Day, executive director of the Tuolumne County Film Commission, said yesterday.

The basis of the pilot show is to grant the wishes of three Tuolumne County residents.

On Wednesday, a recreation-rehabilitation room for Abby Castleberry, a Sonora-area 10-year-old girl seriously injured in a November car accident, was unveiled as the first wish.

The following day, co-host Carter Oosterhouse arrived by helicopter at Sonora High School's Dunlavy Field to tell thousands gathered there in the rain that the show's second wish was to replace the worn field with artificial turf — a project that otherwise could have cost the school and community up to $1 million.

A small film crew will likely return to Sonora in May to film the new and improved field, Day said.

And Saturday night, Tuolumne County Sheriff's Deputy Tim Wertz was granted the third wish in front of an audience of several hundred — adopting his wife's son, Bobby, 13.

Producers closed down School Street on Saturday and transformed a Sonora High School student parking lot into a carnival complete with hay bales, cotton candy and games.

A ferris wheel was the backdrop behind a stage where singer Amy Grant, another host of the show, performed a concert.

"We are celebrating a great week," Grant said. " … I don't think I've ever had the experience of coming into a town and having people fling their arms so wide open."

She covered Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" and closed the show with her 1991 hit "Baby, Baby."

In between songs, Grant called the Wertz family to the stage.

In 2000, Tim Wertz married a woman whose husband was killed by a drunken driver and he wanted to adopt her son. He filed adoption paperwork two months ago.

His wife, Gina, gave out concert tickets to family, friends and Sheriff's Department co-workers so they could witness the wish.

Gina's 17-year-old daughter, Jessica Aubrey, was also on the stage.

Grant called Tuolumne County Superior Court Judge William Polley, who hid in a tent behind the stage, to come out and perform the adoption hearing in front of a crowd gathered for the concert.

Bobby read his new dad a note, ending it with, "You are my hero. You are my dad. I love you."

Tim Wertz, 34, wiped tears from his eyes and he, his wife and Bobby signed the adoption petition, which Judge Polley granted.

"You are now legally father and son," Judge Polley said before Tim and Bobby hugged.

Grant asked Tim, who was obviously surprised, to share his thoughts with the crowd.

"How this county kept this quiet is beyond me," he said to laughter from the audience.

While Gina didn't speak at the taping, Tim Wertz said this morning from his Tuolumne home that his wife is "real happy about it."

So is he.

Included with his wish was throwing the first pitch at a San Francisco Giant's game two weeks ago and he will receive a new Ford pickup truck today.

This weekend's carnival was the show's finale as it combined all three wishes: The last wish was granted at the concert, held next to Dunlavy Field, while a fair was simultaneously held to benefit Abby Castleberry.

Tuolumne resident Ron Hamilton, who was working with producers on the football field wish, said he was asked to put together a benefit fair for Abby.

"I don't even know Abby, but I will meet her tonight," Hamilton said Saturday afternoon.

His 76-year-old father made a wooden wishing well where people could toss in money to help Abby.

A pile of money, including at least one $100 bill, was thrown into the well, decorated with fake and fresh flowers along with a statue of an angel holding a bird and standing over a little girl petting a bunny.

On Saturday night, Abby rode in a mini pink sportscar on one carnival ride and a horse on the merry-go-round.

The benefit fair for Abby had booths selling Polish sausages, frozen bananas on a stick, glow-in-the-dark necklaces and rubber bracelets similar to Lance Armstrong's LiveStrong bands.

Abby's bracelets — green because that's her favorite color — sell for $3 and read "Believe in Miracles Abby."

"We're just hoping it's not something bad," Nancee Baker, a Sheriff's Department dispatcher who works with Abby's mother, said of the misspelling of "miracles."

"Something got lost in the translation," said Baker of the bracelets made in Asia.

Even so, Amelia Harrison of Sonora had on an Abby bracelet.

"We'll wear these in support of her and her recovery," Harrison said.

Baker said a new batch of 2,000 bracelets will arrive in three weeks and people can exchange the old bracelets for new ones with "miracles" spelled correctly.