Girls give, girls go to Hannah Montana concert

If you're an 8- or 9- or 10-year-old girl in America in 2007, going to a Hannah Montana show is of paramount importance.

It's important whether you're a healthy girl living in Bellevue, or whether you're a girl who's had 18 chemotherapy treatments at Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center in Seattle.

Hannah Montana -- a character on the Disney Channel played by Miley Cyrus, who's all of 14 -- takes over the fantasies of her fans. So for them, sick or healthy, it's beyond important.

It's an obsession, just like for the generations of past girls it was Shaun Cassidy or Leif Garrett or the Backstreet Boys or the Monkees or the Bay City Rollers or even the pre-tabloid Britney Spears.

And it was Hannah Montana's sold-out show at the KeyArena on Monday night that brought together two pairs of such young girls. For the family members and other adults present, it also was once again a reminder of the randomness of life-changing events.

The healthy and ill girls didn't meet because the hospital doesn't want to set a precedent in which patients receiving gifts are to meet with benefactors, and because of concerns about patients' immune systems.

The two healthy girls, Danielle Bensussen, 9; and Aubrey Smith, 8; and Aubrey's mother, Tami Smith, all of Bellevue, dropped off four Hannah Montana tickets at the Giraffe Zone at Children's Hospital, which has named various parts of its center with kid-friendly names.

They then had a meal at a nearby Burgermaster, and Tami Smith drove them back to Bellevue in her Volvo SUV. The mom said she knew a life such as her family leads can change overnight.

"It can be cancer, it can be a car accident, it can be anything," she said.

The family had ended up with extra tickets. On Craigslist Monday, those tickets were selling for two and three times the $65 face value. Smith didn't want the profit.

"It was more important to me to give them to two little girls," she said. And to give her daughter and her friend a life lesson.

So she contacted the hospital.

Two girls getting treatment there were Kaylee Springfield, 8, of Port Angeles; and Kayla Rauenhorst, 10, of Fairbanks, Alaska.

They and their respective moms went to Monday night's show, the girls having been chosen in a random drawing from patients getting a doctor's approval their immune systems could withstand such a night out.

Kaylee Springfield is a shy girl, diagnosed with leukemia, who simply was happy to hold the Hannah Montana tickets.

Kayla Rauenhorst was diagnosed with bone cancer in her left leg. She's had to have 4-½ inches of her femur cut off above the knee, and a prosthetic rod with a spring-loaded mechanism inserted in the gap.

Kayla and her mom, Tanya Coty, live in a nearby apartment. The rest of the family is in Alaska and sometimes visits.

Kayla told about her 18 chemotherapy treatments. "Sometimes it makes me really sick, sometimes you start throwing up, sometimes it sails by," she said.

Tanya Coty said that now, when she talks to her daughter, it's sometimes not as if she's talking to a 10-year-old.

"She's grown up so much in a matter of 11 months," said the mother. "Some days it's like I'm talking to a colleague or another adult."

But on Monday night, it was time for 8-, 9- and 10-year-old girls to be just that, and sing along with the Hannah Montana tunes they have downloaded onto their iPods and memorized.

Eating their lunch at Burgermaster, Danielle Bensussen and Aubrey Smith sang a bit from one of their favorites, the one with lyrics that go:

"Who said, who said I can't be Superman,

"I say, I say that I know I can."

Erik Lacitis: 206-464-2237 or elacitis@seattletimes.com