Between Murelle Plotner, eighth-grade student and St. Joseph, Ill., native, and her friends, Justin Bieber is a popular topic of conversation. They’ve swooned over the evolution of his hairstyles, the dreaminess of his voice and the prospect of attending one of his concerts. But over the past few months, those conversations have only existed through text messages, Facebook and Facetime while Murelle has been in St. Louis receiving treatment for myelodysplastic syndrome, a blood disease that’s often a precursor to leukemia.

Instead of letting this virtual communication hinder their friendship with Murelle, Jenna Jenkins and Bailey George used it to their advantage. They decided that if anyone deserved to meet Bieber, it was her.

That’s when the tweeting began.

On March 25, the girls began tweeting at Bieber’s Twitter account with the hashtag, “#JustinMeetMurelle.” While the pop star didn’t respond, thousands of others did. Strangers — including Josh Paul, former bassist for the band Daughtry — quickly followed suit and tweeted at Bieber with the hashtag. Since then, supporters have printed t-shirts, organized fundraisers and shaved their heads in Murelle’s honor. Several Central Illinois news outlets, including WCIA and WICD, have picked up her story. A “Movin’ for Murelle” 1K run is scheduled for April 20 in her hometown of St. Joseph, Ill.

But it wasn’t until Austin Leevy, an employee at This Is It Furniture in Champaign, decided to shave his head that Murelle’s dream became a reality.

Because Leevy didn’t know Murelle personally, his boss, Mike Namoff, owner of This Is It, was very interested in the situation. Namoff continued asking Leevy questions, and after learning that Murelle’s dream was to meet Bieber, he realized he could help.

Namoff, who helps with auctions all over the country, heard about a “Justin Bieber package” that was being auctioned off at a silent auction at an architecture school in Philadelphia. After hearing Murelle’s story, he decided to purchase it. The package contained third row tickets to Justin Bieber’s July 9 concert at the United Center in Chicago, along with passes to meet the singer. He is currently raising money to pay for the package and the travel expenses, which in total is about $5,000.

So far, Namoff said he has raised over $2,500 in physical donations, and he recently started a website so that people can also contribute funds online with their credit and debit cards.

“The support has been pretty crazy,” Namoff said. “We’ve had little old ladies stopping into my store with $50 checks.”

While some have donated hundreds of dollars, Namoff said he is appreciative of even the smallest contribution toward paying for the package.

“I think people get intimidated to help, but all the $5, $10 and $20 add up,” Namoff said. “We’re not looking for people to give a thousand (dollars) or two, we’re looking at doing a community project.”

Namoff added that even if he is unable to raise the money, he will make sure that Murelle will attend the concert, regardless.

“I’m going to make it happen,” he said. Murelle’s father, Corey Plotner, said the prayers and support Murelle has received so far through the #JustinMeetMurelle campaign has overwhelmed their entire family.

“We’re pretty quiet,” Corey said. “We don’t get out and bolster too much, so to have all these people that we know, and even … the people that we don’t know, doing everything they can to help is quite amazing.”

John Eckert, freshman in LAS, is one of these supporters. At age 11, Eckert was diagnosed with lymphoma and underwent eight months of treatment.

As a cancer survivor, Eckert said he can relate to Murelle’s situation and has the utmost respect for the supporters of the #JustinMeetMurelle movement.

“There’s obviously something really special about this little girl that she’s able to prompt this kind of support,” Eckert said. “It’s amazing.”

On April 10, Murelle received even more good news. The bone marrow transplant she received was successful and the 13-year-old is now 100 percent cancer-free, according to her father’s Twitter account.

Bailey can be reached at [email protected].