When Kalea Anderson began talking with JuJu Smith-Schuster on Instagram two years ago, she couldn’t have imagined it would lead to him playing a part in her brother’s wedding.
But that’s exactly what happened on Saturday.
On a busy weekend for Smith-Schuster that included going to the Chartiers Valley High School Prom with student Anthony Molinaro and passing out Heinz Ketchup at Kennywood, he managed to squeeze in wedding well wishes to Kalea’s brother, Jesse Wayne, and his bride, Nikki Gilbert-Wayne.
“I wouldn’t call us friends,” said Anderson, 24, an early childhood and special education major at Mercyhurst University in Erie. “But he chooses to open my messages out of the 2.6 million followers that he has, which is pretty cool.
“I sent him a message at 12:56 on Saturday afternoon on Instagram, ‘Hey, could you do me a small favor? My brother is getting married today. My whole family, obviously you know that we’re Steelers fans, you are their favorite player. It would make their entire day if you could send a video saying, ‘Happy Wedding Day Jesse!’”
Anderson, who is from Brookville, grew concerned when several hours passed without a response from Smith-Schuster. Then, she realized that he was busy at Kennywood. As the hours passed at the wedding reception, she held her breath and hoped for the best.
Finally, at about 6:30 p.m. with more than 100 people still at the reception, Smith-Schuster sent a message.
“I am standing right next to my brother, the groom, and it says ‘JuJu sent you a message,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ and I opened it and it popped up and I started crying.”
Anderson went to the front of the room, plugged her phone into the Bluetooth and played Smith-Schuster’s video.
“Everybody was like, ‘This is so awesome!’” Anderson said.
Anderson felt that she had to create a video responding to Smith-Schuster and got everyone who was still at the reception to participate.
For her part, Anderson did not seem surprised by Smith-Schuster’s kind gesture.
“Everything that he does, I feel like he is so humble at such a young age and for him to just go out of his way and choose to do this stuff, it’s not like he has to do any of this for anyone but he does,” said Anderson. “He just continuously does all these random acts of kindness. He’s a major role model for someone 16 or 17 years old, someone very humble to look up to.”
