Wildfire

It's a (Wildfire) dream come true: Chicago girl gets birthday wish to meet TV cast

What does a girl want for her 17th birthday? For Angela Paparo, it was to travel from her home near Chicago to visit Rio Rancho just to meet the cast of "Wildfire."

Although her family doesn't entirely share her love of the ABC Family show - her father, Tony, has seen a few episodes, and not enough stuff blows up for her brother Anthony, 15 - the quartet, including mom Gloria, planned their family vacation around Rio Rancho and the hit cable show.

With a little help from Convention and Visitors Bureau director Judi Snow, Angela Paparo, whose birthday was about a month earlier, got her wish Thursday, starting with a tour of the indoor "Wildfire" sets housed at the Fulcrum Building in northern Rio Rancho.

Although the "rooms" at the set were incomplete, and the facades for those rooms were built miles away, Angela, who has seen every episode, said she recognized many of them. She was also introduced to some new or expanded sets that will be used for the third season, on which the cast and crew recently began filming.

The second leg of the tour took the family to the set in Algodones, where the cast and crew film the outdoor shots. It was there that Angela not only met the show's stars but where she learned how hospitable they are.

The show's star, Genevieve Cortese, who plays Kris Furillo, was one of the first to greet the family, and the most enthusiastic. Cortese bounded over and threw her arms around the birthday girl. After expressing her disbelief that anyone would travel that far to see them, Cortese cleared off her seat, the fabric folding chair with her name stitched into it, and offered it to Angela.

"This is your seat for the day," she said.

But Angela did not keep that seat for long, as Greg Serano, who plays Pablo Betart, swept her up for a tour. First, Serano used the family's camera to narrate a video tour, whispering into the camera to describe what was going on at the set. Later, he put Angela and Tony Paparo into a golf cart and, kicking up dust along the way, gave them the "studio tour."

Paparo also got an autographed photo from the show's stars and a signed copy of the script.

"They beat everybody as far as being hospitable and welcoming," Snow said.

And although Snow said this was a one-time event and that she would not be taking others on another tour of Wildfire, she did admit she enjoyed herself.

While the Paparos were in New Mexico, they also visited Carlsbad Caverns, Roswell, Los Alamos and Albuquerque's Old Town. They said they would likely take the tram to Sandia Peak that night. None of them realized there was so much to do in New Mexico and only learned that thanks to "Wildfire."

"I would have never thought of coming here otherwise," Mr. Paparo said.

Snow said that's the idea right now, to center visitors' New Mexico vacations in Rio Rancho, but she looks forward to the day that Rio Rancho is enough for vacationers.

"Right now we're kind of a hub and spoke destination," she said. "Eventually, they won't want to go anywhere else."

The city's only attractions currently are the J & R Vintage Auto Museum and, of course, "Wildfire."

"Currently, what we are focusing on is our antique car museum and the location and the affordability and the hospitality," she said.

But when Snow looks toward the future, often the near future, she sees the opening of the Santa Ana Star Center, and the Lionsgate studio, which could keep people within Rio Rancho for their vacations.

But in Snow's mission to make Rio Rancho a vacation destination, the Paparos, and families like them, are the first step.

posted by Meredy @ 11:00:00 PM