CASA BLANCA SALON AND SPA LAUNCHES WEBSITE AND RAISES FUNDS FOR STARLIGHT STARBRIGHT AND RADY CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

Rancho Santa Fe——Casa Blanca Salon and Spa located in Rancho Santa Fe, California, is hosting an event on Saturday evening, February 17, 2007, to launch their new website and raise funds to benefit Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego. All net proceeds raised from the silent and live auction and twenty percent of all net online purchases made at the event will benefit Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation’s PC Pals® program, which will place as many PC Pals as possible in Rady Children’s Hospital. Starlight Starbright’s PC Pals program provides durable, mobile and secure laptop systems designed specifically to meet the needs of pediatric patients ages 5 to 18.

The owners of Casa Blanca Salon and Spa, Neil and Marcina Checketts, selected the PC Pals program because it has a direct and profound impact on seriously ill children. Lauded by health professionals, child life specialists and pediatric patients, PC Pals make a significant difference in a sick child’s life. Research on similar programs has demonstrated that, more than providing communication, education and entertainment tools, computer access can be instrumental in reducing the isolation, hopelessness and dejection that hospitalized children often feel. PC Pals raise children’s spirits and distract them from pain.

Each PC Pal comes pre-installed with Starlight Starbright’s medical education and disease management programs. Used by hundreds of thousands of sick children each year, the programs provide medical information in a fun, engaging manner and empower children to better manage and cope with their medical conditions and confidently interact with medical professionals. Wired for Internet connectivity, PC Pals offer monitored email and chat programs that children use to stay in touch with friends and loved ones. Each laptop also provides direct access to Starbright World, a private, professionally moderated online community built to provide seriously ill teens with a support network and critically important sense of belonging. In addition, kids can better manage school assignments using the email, online research tools and bedside tutoring opportunities that PC Pals enable.

By hospitals request, PC Pals are pre-configured for immediate use, have a flexible design and address important hospital concerns, such as portability, security and easy clean-up/infection control. Ninety percent of those hospitals that currently have patient computers have no technical support. As a result, when computers break, there is no means by which to repair them. By contrast, PC Pals are centrally managed as a Starlight Starbright program, and therefore include a training and tech support package that minimizes downtime if a problem occurs. A replacement PC Pal is shipped within five days if tech support can’t resolve the problem.

The overarching objective of the PC Pals program is to lesson the emotional and psychological impact that lengthy hospitalization and ongoing treatment have upon children suffering through the pain of serious illness. Each PC Pal unit costs $5000 and the demand for the program is strong and the need is enormous; thousands of children nationwide are served by the hospitals on the PC Pal waiting list. Based on pilot phase demand, each PC Pal will be in use by pediatric patients nearly 24 hours a day and used by 1,800 children per year.

Casa Blanca Salon and Spa is positioned to help address that need by hosting this inaugural event where guests will be given the opportunity to navigate their new website and purchase items online, amidst a spa lounge atmosphere. There will be a wide variety of silent auction items as well as several live auction items that patrons can bid on, including: Padre tickets situated behind the dugout with VIP parking; an autographed football by San Diego Charger Donnie Edwards; designer jewelry; flowers for a year from Pro Flowers and Torrey Pines Golf Course clinics. The event will include a lingerie and loungewear fashion show featuring the 2007 spring line of Los Angeles designer, Wendy Glez, along with the 2007 spring line of jewelry that is currently featured in the Victoria Secret’s catalog by the Beverly Hills designer to A-List celebrities, Lisa Stewart. Another event highlight will be the Celebrity Chef Cook-Off between Executive Chef Bernard Guillas of the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club and The Marine Room who will be defending his title against Executive Chef and Owner Jeffrey Strauss of Pamplemousse Grille. Legendary fashion and celebrity photographer, Alexander Spear, who most recently shot Evangeline Lilly of the television series, “Lost”, will document the event and shoot photos of guests in return for a $25.00 donation to the PC Pals program.

Guests will be invited to test and sample the latest hair, body and skin care lines developed by event sponsors, Pevonia Botanica, Bumble and bumble and Archipelago Botanicals. Pevonia Botanica, will demonstrate their Caviar and Peal skincare line at a Caviar and Champagne Station and their Oxygen skincare line at an Oxygen Bar. Archipelago Botanicals will offer body care lotion testers featured throughout the venue along with aromatherapy candles, and Bumble and bumble will display products and hair designs specifically created for this event at the Pink Martini Salon. Additional event sponsors and donors at the time of this publication include: Pamplemousse Grille, La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club and The Marine Room, Lisa Stewart, Wendy Glez, Christy Helm, San Diego Charger Donnie Edwards, Alexander Spear, Karl Strauss Breweries, Atlas Transfer and Storage, Pro Flowers, Torrey Pines Golf Course, Amber Chic, Coffee Ambassador and Robert Bradford. To donate an auction item or make a charitable contribution to the fundraising effort, please call 858/759-8998.

About Casa Blanca Salon and Spa
Casa Blanca was founded in 1995 and is the recipient of the 2000 Salon of the Year Award of Merit from Modern Salon Magazine, a national media publication. Casa Blanca is a full-service salon and spa for men, women and chaperoned children with a retail boutique offering unique gifts and accessories along with hair, body and skin care products imported from around the world. Specialty packages include combined treatments for brides, women, gentlemen, Salon and Spa Escapes, a Petite Spa Escape and Beatrice Berries events for young girls. Casa Blanca supports community fundraising events and the PC Pals and Great Escapes programs administered by the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation. To learn more about Casa Blanca, visit www.casablancasalonspa.com.

About Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation
The Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation is a nonprofit organization that transforms the lives of seriously ill children and their families through imaginative programs that educate, uplift their spirits, foster a sense of community, and help alleviate the pain and fear of prolonged illness. Starlight Starbright offers an impressive array of in-hospital, outpatient, school and home-based programs and services. To learn more, visit www.starlight.org.

About Rady Children’s Hospital
Rady Children’s is a non-profit, community-based healthcare organization. It serves San Diego and Imperial counties, with a population of more than 760,600 children under the age of 17. Rady Children’s mission is: “to restore, sustain and enhance the health and developmental potential of children through excellence in care, education, research and advocacy.” To learn more, visit www.chsd.org.

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Contacts:
Eva M. Stimson
Casa Blanca Salon & Spa
858/759-8998 Office
858/864-8536 Cell

Donna DeDario
Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation
323/556-3322 Office