A day care owner insists the hip hop queen will come since the center's need to raise funds makes it a family affair.
By BRADY DENNIS
Published July 19, 2003
TAMPA - The press release rolled off the fax, almost too strange to believe.
A very small Tampa day care center was making a very big claim - that superstar singer Mary J. Blige will come to town today to help with a fundraiser at the center, which 58-year-old Louise Reaves runs out of her house at 6502 N 34th St.
Mary J. Blige - celebrity, millionaire, diva - stopping by a middle class neighborhood to raise cash for a day care with 17 children on its roster?
Uh, okay.
So we asked around.
We dialed Blige's record company, MCA Records, in Los Angeles.
"We definitely have her in Chicago on Saturday," said MCA employee Greg Miller. "She's not going to be there (in Tampa). I wonder why they put her name on this."
We called the office of Blige's manager in Beverly Hills.
"She's on a radio tour," a voice on the other line said. "She's nowhere near Tampa."
Then we checked with Mama.
Turns out that Cora Blige, Mary J.'s mother, has been close friends with Louise Reaves for nearly 30 years. The two met in Yonkers, N.Y., and the Bliges visit Tampa almost every year.
This year, with Reaves needing computers and an extension added to her day care, they decided to invite the public and ask for donations. When we came calling, we found Cora Blige already at Reaves' house, waiting for the party to start.
She says Mary J. will be here today.
"Let me tell you something, I know she will be here," Mama said. "She's coming Saturday, but I couldn't tell you what time. She's going to squeeze time in to get here."
A spokesman for the event said he hoped Mary J. would make it by 1 p.m. Louise Reaves said she heard 2 p.m. Nobody seems to know for sure.
"I just know that she's coming," Reaves said. "She's doing me a favor."
According to the almost-too-good-to-be-true press release, Reaves is planning to serve Jamaican and soul food, offer pony rides and hold performances by a reggae group and a gospel singer.
Also scheduled are a clothing auction and a teen talent contest, in which the winner will win an expense-paid trip to New York to spend a weekend with the diva herself.
Organizers say that anyone is welcome to drop by, and they are asking that donation checks be made out to the Reaves Day Care Foundation.
The foundation has not yet registered as a non-profit organization in Florida, but event spokesman Michael Cummings said the family plans to do that very soon.
"Those are just mere formalities," Cummings said. "This is the first year, so (Reaves) will be putting all that together."
But why the need for a foundation to raise money for such a small day care center?
Reaves filed for bankruptcy a decade ago. She said she had moved to Florida and took over her parents' affairs when they took ill. She said their mortgage was too far behind, so she had to do something.
"It was a struggle, but I made it," she said. "But I can't get credit because of the bankruptcy."
No credit means no way to borrow money. So Reaves decided to hold the fundraiser. She figures it will take $14,000 to add the addition onto her playroom, then several thousand more for computers.
The way she sees it, Mary J.'s visit is an old friend doing a favor. The way Cummings sees it, it's a celebrity remembering her roots.
"Mary J. is going to take time to reach back," he said. "It's a noble endeavor. All these folks came from very humble beginnings."
So she might come at noon. Or 1 p.m. Or 3 p.m. But despite what the Hollywood publicists and managers say, the folks at Louise Reaves' day care swear she is coming.
If and when she does, the most famous diva in Tampa on Saturday will be scarfing down soul food in a modest one-story brick house in a neighborhood by the river, raising money for 17 kids who haven't even made it to kindergarten yet.
The thought makes Louise Reaves smile.
"I'm blessed," she said.
- Researchers John Martin and Kitty Bennett contributed to this story.
