When Michelle Obama calls -- and wants to do a favor for 150 Baltimore schoolkids

The phone call got Alicia Wilson’s attention. On the other end of the line was Michelle Obama. She wanted to give away tickets to city students to attend a stop in her book tour in Washington, D.C.

Could Wilson help her do that? Wilson had met the former first lady through a mutual friend and then had dinner with her more than a year ago, sharing the work she did at College Bound Foundation, a Baltimore nonprofit that provides support and counseling to students who want to attend college.

Obama was now hoping to do something for city students. The tickets for the Capital One Arena stop in the 10-city book tour for the recently released memoir, “Becoming” ranged in price from $29 to $3,000 when they first went on sale, out of reach for many people.

Obama asked Wilson how many kids she wanted to bring. “I said 50, and she said dream a little bigger,” Wilson said. And that is how 150 students and their chaperones will be loading onto three buses to go to Washington, D.C., on Saturday night for the event. Tickets for the tour have sold briskly and on Friday, tickets were being resold for more than $200 apiece.

Read more: https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/k-12/bs-md-ci-obama-tour-baltimore-kids-20181116-story.html