Starlight Starbright's Stellar Night

"Children are 30 percent of our population and 100 percent of our future."

Robin McGraw and Dave Koz won the Heart of Gold award last night at Starlight Starbright's Stellar Evening. I had the pleasure of celebrating the evening with a roomful of humanitarians who gathered with a shared passion; helping very ill children and their families creatively and creating connection.

There are children who have had over 50 surgeries before reaching their sweet 16th birthday party. They wake up to needles and nurses and the normalcy of childhood escapes them. Thanks to good people with great ideas, humanitarian organizations are born and grow.

A video game that teaches kids about cancer cells and they get to shoot down the baddies??? Cool! It's called "ReMission" by HopeLabs.

"When my son saw that Nintendo system when he was getting wheeled into the room, I knew that that wasn't going to make the needles less painful but it made the hospital experience less painful." Hostess Jamie Lee Curtis shared her introduction to the organization after bringing her son in due to an accident.

I had a beautiful table where I sat with people who worked at the hospitals, who was on the board with Starlight Starbright, who worked on the technical side of their programs, who were all great people moved by a beautiful cause... and we were within 20 feet of Jamie Lee Curtis. HA!

Other stars?

Queen Latifah was sitting at the table next to us and Smokey Robinson was sitting with Patti Austin another table over. Other luminaries were present but I don't want to be a windbag.

I'd rather rave about the opening entertainer of the evening, a 10 year old child who played a Beethoven sonata who is also in his 5th year of college studies. How's that for a brilliant shining star? He and his proud parents opened the evening.

The Hollywood stars of the evening weren't the Grammy and Oscar crowd, rather it was the families... the children who have seized their own power despite their challenges, the famililes that created strength when the fight for life was upon them and the families who celebrate their lives by giving to those from their abundance, the humanitarians that comprise the supporters of Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation.

It was a truly stellar evening.

JNET