LALLOUZ INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE :: Starlight Starbright

ANNAMARIA HEMINGWAY Author of “PRACTICING CONSCIOUS LIVING AND DYING: Stories of the Eternal Continuum of Consciousness”. {Life After Death} Paperback UK £11.99

Peter tells a deeply moving story that is full of hope for the future. His encounter with a dying child illustrates how engaging with death, enables life to move in such mysterious ways. Sean provided Peter with the opportunity to align himself with a sense of purpose or mission for this lifetime. Through projecting his good intentions, Peter experienced extraordinary synchronicities that gave rise to chance meetings, unexpected events and the wisdom of an unseen guiding hand that was ready to aid his humanitarian efforts.

Maybe the force of a higher power is working through me, and perhaps Sean was an angel delivering a message. I just don’t know the answer to that. But what I do know is that Sean was a courageous, wonderful human being and I wanted to help him. From the day I met him, there was no turning back. My life was changed forever. 

I do believe that there is a force in the hearts of people that can bring about our highest aspirations for civilization. We all have a role to play. When the call comes – it heralds an opportunity to search deep within ourselves to find compassion, love, and charity, and to manifest these qualities out into the world. If that is God, then count me a believer.

I know my wonderful staff and volunteers all feel the same way. They each have a purpose, and are of great intrinsic value, because they create some joy and offer help to those who need it. They provide happiness to sick kids, a helping hand to abused and neglected children, and shelter for the homeless...   What could possibly be more rewarding? It’s an honor to be around them. 

*****

When I arrived at his office, his assistant said, “Be brief, and get right to the point.” She added, “Mr. Spielberg can only give you fifteen minutes of his time.” I felt totally intimidated! However, my fifteen minutes turned into over two hours and Steven was totally engaged, as we kicked ideas around for what we called Starbright. Then he said:

“I think it’s an incredible project. Count me in. How can I help?” 

I replied, “I think you would be the perfect person to chair Starbright and help recruit experts for the board. We also desperately need a financial contribution.”

“How much do you want?” Steven asked. 

At that moment, a voice that sounded like mine, but came from an unknown source deep within me, uttered the words, “Two and a half million dollars.” 

“You’ve got it,” said Steven. 

I left the meeting knowing that we had all the backing needed to succeed in this new activity, which would creatively bring so many rays of sunshine into the lives of sick children.  

I get enormous rewards from my involvement in this kind of work, because I get to see the results of trying to make a difference in the lives of these children. 

I opened the mail this morning and received a copy of American Airlines’ Advantage magazine. On the front cover, there was a picture of a kid in a wheelchair, with Mickey Mouse standing next to him and the caption read: “American Airlines and the Starlight Foundation sent this child to Disney World.” I thought, “This is great. I had a hand in making that happen, and it’s totally wonderful. What an honor, what a privilege in a nutty world.”

My belief is that we can all make a contribution in trying to make the world a better place. And through choosing to become involved, we also lift ourselves up and build our own happiness. A friend approached me recently, saying:

“Peter, my boyfriend is moving to New York, and I have no friends in the city. I don’t know what to do. Can you suggest anything?” 

Without hesitating, I replied, “Did you know that besides helping 200,000 sick children a month, Starlight is one of the most remarkable dating services that I’ve ever heard of? We’ve had so many marriages that I can’t remember them all. If you want to meet genuine, good people, get involved with a charity, my dear!”

Of course, it’s not all plain sailing. There’s the constant stress of never having enough money, volunteers, or time, and there is always so much more to be done. Through becoming involved, I have learned of some truly shocking statistics:

In America, a million children at any one time are in foster care, institutions, or on the streets. Over 1,000 children die every year through abuse or neglect, and an average of 1,690 children are sexually assaulted each week. One in six children lives in poverty. Over half the children who appear at an official hearing, where their whole life is held in the balance, have no lawyer. 

I was horrified and deeply upset at this state of affairs. And then I became angry, and wondered what could be done to improve the situation. It seemed an enormous task, but like I tell my own kids, “If you’re not willing to fail, you can’t possibly succeed.” So, I established a new organization called First Star, whose mission is to improve the life outcomes of America’s abused and neglected children. Through research and raising the public’s awareness, our vision is to provide quality and compassionate care for children in every aspect of the system. In this, the richest nation in the world, how can we do anything else?

I still feel the stress and frustration of wanting to do more. Every day, we can look around and see someone who needs a helping hand. Most weekends, I ride my bike from the village down to the beach. It’s about a fifteen-mile trip, and one Sunday I counted forty-one homeless people along the way. Most of them carted their possessions around in a stolen shopping cart, and slept in a large cardboard box.

KATHLEEN KENNEDY

I started to think about the challenges these people face, and realized that most of them had to do with finding shelter in bad weather.

After pondering on the problem for a while, I arranged a meeting with the Pasadena Art Center College of Design, and I sponsored a competition to see if some of the students could come up with a better idea than giving men, women and children the empty cardboard box that a refrigerator came in. 

They submitted some great designs and our fourth prototype EDAR (“Everyone Deserves A Roof’) will be in Beta testing on the streets shortly. It’s similar to a shopping cart, but it has retractable panels that convert into a tent to give a bed and protection from the elements at night. Of course it’s not as good as being able to offer people a permanent home, but it’s a great improvement on a cardboard box. 

I often get people coming up to me, saying, “The hand of God must be working through you,” or, “You must be on a mission from God.” I think it disappoints them when I reply, “I’m an agnostic.” Don’t misunderstand me, because if I die and wake up to find myself in heaven, I will be delighted, and the first to apologize! But I’ve reinterpreted my own religion to be a kind of passionate Humanism, a belief that all of us have an instinct to lift up our civilization, and to make the one we leave our kids better than the one we received. 

STEVEN SPIELBERG

As I mused over this idea, I decided that we needed to expand our mission to develop this kind of programming. I knew that we would need a powerful ally in our corner, somebody who wouldn’t be intimidated by the major studios. Kathy Kennedy, one of our first board members, managed to arrange for me to have a meeting with Steven Spielberg.

SARYL & PETER SAMUELSON

The charity just snowballed, and we can now serve over 2.5 million children every year, on an annual budget of around 40 million dollars. We have chapters and affiliates in Japan, Australia, Canada, the U.K., and right across the United States, and we provide an array of important psycho-social services to seriously ill children and their families. It is a colossus!  

As Starlight began to flourish, I started to see that there was far more we could do for seriously ill children. One day, I was visiting the County USC Medical Center in Los Angeles. As I walked through the facility, I came across a child’s room, and the only source of entertainment was an old black and white television mounted on the wall.

I asked the nurse, “How’s this child in traction meant to change the channel?” 

“I’ll show you,” she replied. She went over to a corner in the room and brought out a seven-foot long bamboo pole that the child was supposed to use to watch another program.

“Surely we can do better than this?” I said to myself. And, with the help of Michael Milken, I invented Starlight Fun Centers, which are composed of entertainment centers set in portable carts that can be rolled onto a child’s bed. Then I thought about the children lying in bed all day with nothing to do, and thought it might be possible to formulate some unique programming that would keep them amused and stimulated.

Fate was definitely taking a hand in my life that day. Previously, I had gone out on a date with a lady who was an accountant, and I had asked her to the gathering. When the lawyer asked, “What are we going to call this organization?” She replied, “You remember the children’s rhyme that goes Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight? We all nodded, and she added, “How about calling the charity Starlight?

We all met in the Interscope boardroom; I stood there and told them about Sean and how I believed that we could make something similar happen for other seriously ill children. Everyone listened to what I had to say, and there was complete silence in the room. Then the most amazing scene took place, as they all agreed to my proposal and that was just the beginning! 

I recognized that I would need a lawyer, an accountant, a publicist, a fundraiser, and someone who knew all about hospital policies. I spent the rest of the day calling everyone that   might help, and arranged a meeting for that afternoon. 

One morning, I woke up and knew that I was being called to start a children’s charity for kids like Sean. It was conceived initially as an organization that would grant seriously ill children their wish. Although I had no doubts about the validity of this mission, I asked myself, “How on earth  am I  going to do this? I’ve got no idea how to launch a charity.” Then I thought, “Well, I have skills as a film producer, and I’m used to working against the odds, so I can use these same skills to make this project work and get it off the ground.”

STEVE UJLAKI

I told him the rest of the story and, as Steve listened, he broke down and wept at the table. For a moment, it just all seemed horrendously embarrassing — for him, for me, and for the people sitting at the next table. But suddenly, I felt this tremendous surge of energy flow through me; it was almost as if I had been struck by lightning. The experience with Sean had been so powerful for me, but now I realized that the story could also have a colossal emotional effect on someone else. I left the lunch feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of what had taken place, and for a couple of weeks just let everything stew around inside me.

It was wonderful to see how Sean rallied, despite how far advanced his illness was. There was a look of wonder and excitement on his face, as we visited Disneyland and all the other attractions. We even borrowed a helicopter and pilot, so that he could see Los Angeles from the air. 

For a while time stood still. Sean’s illness faded into the background, and I think that for the first time in a long while, he got to experience feelings of pure joy. The trip also had a domino effect. Sean’s mother began to relax, and found great enjoyment in watching her son having so much fun. It was touching to see how happy this made Sean, for seeing his mother relaxed and carefree just served to increase his own high spirits. 

Sean returned to London, and died a few weeks later. I experienced a very complex set of emotions after his death. I felt enormous sadness, because he lived in my condo, and I had been privileged to share such an incredible experience with him. But we had all been preparing for the inevitable, including Sean himself, and there was a good feeling knowing that we had crammed so many unforgettable moments into his last days. I also knew that his mother had been blessed with the most precious gift. She had memories of her son laughing and transcending his illness, rather than just fading away in a hospital bed. 

Some time later, I was having lunch with a business acquaintance from HBO named Steve Ujlaki. We were meeting to discuss a project. Halfway through the lunch, we ran out of business to discuss, and Steve said, “So what else is going on in your life?” I replied, “Well, the strangest thing happened to me, there was this little boy...”

EMMA SAMMS

I had no idea of how to fill this void, but everything changed by fluke in the fall of 1982, when I had a conversation with my cousin, the actress Emma Samms. When Emma was still living in London, she had lost her brother, my cousin Jamie, to an awful disease called Aplastic Anaemia.

I thought, “This is a great opportunity,” and headed out to Los Angeles. It was a struggle at first, because the UK government would only let me bring $40 with me, but I soon fell in love with the country and sensed anything was possible.

Gradually, I began to get the breaks, and started to find success as a producer. My movies did well. I produced Revenge of the Nerds and Turk 182, and then I partnered with my brother, Marc, and made Arlington Road, Wilde, Tom and Viv and other films, which gave me a sense of creative accomplishment as well as an income. But I had a nagging realization that the all-encompassing and mostly self-absorbed studio mentality left a void in my life. I think that you can go nuts as a film producer.

You can mislay your compass, lose your sense of direction and fall over the edge of the cliff, onto the jagged dangerous rocks of delusion and narcissism below. I see it happening all the time in this business. 

While visiting Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital later, she had come to know and befriend a young boy, Sean, who was fighting an inoperable brain tumor. She told me about him, saying:

Sean is such a brave and remarkable young kid. He’s gone through so much in his young life, but he lights up when he tells me about his secret longing to visit Disneyland before he dies. I really wish there was something I could do to make his wish come true. I know what a difference this trip would make to him. Unfortunately, there’s no way his mother could afford for him to go.

If we find the courage to look deeply into the eyes of death, we can see the reflection of life gazing back at us. Sometimes, as in the case of Peter Samuelson, we can become aligned with our own unique destiny. Through meeting Sean, a young boy dying from an inoperable brain tumor, Peter experienced an epiphany that would change the course of his life forever. He became Sean’s friend on the last part of his earthly journey, and this gesture opened the floodgates of his heart.

Summer had arrived. The day was hot and sultry, but a welcome breeze flowed off the ocean, which appeared to sparkle and shimmer far out into the horizon. The Pacific Coast Highway meanders and winds its way along the coast, providing the most magnificent views. Passing through an arc of majestic cliffs, the rhythms, beauty, and wildness of the natural world can be experienced as the vista opens up to the sight of the waves bouncing and breaking onto a shoreline of golden sand. If one is lucky enough – it is sometimes possible to pause for a moment and reflect on the wondrous sight of playful dolphins and seals bobbing their heads above the surface of the water, before heading into the materially-driven metropolis of Los Angeles. 

Peter Samuelson arrived at the restaurant in Beverly Hills, which was full of lunchtime chatter as executives sat together discussing business deals, and secretaries ordered salads and chatted with their girlfriends. Peter was well dressed, charming, and friendly. Even though he had lived in the United States for a number of years, he still retained his unmistakable English accent as he recounted his story. 

PETER SAMUELSON

STARLIGHT FOUNDER

I enjoyed high school, and worked as hard as I could. The perseverance paid off when I was offered a full scholarship to Cambridge University, where I read English Literature. At Cambridge, I first realized that life consisted of more than medieval literature. I became socially engaged and fought for changes in various pro-social ways, certainly with at best mixed success. 

I stumbled into producing films, partly because as a French translator on Steve McQueen’s film Le Mans in my Gap Year in 1970, I was never really much good at telling the other side of a meeting what I thought my guy meant, as opposed to what he actually said. Also because my father had omitted to tell me what my grandfather had told him: “Don’t be a producer; it’s too difficult and totally irrational”. I moved back to London after I graduated, and managed somehow to get hired repeatedly as a production manager, the senior organizer who works for the producer of a film. A Hollywood-based commercial company offered me the position of staff line producer.

I was born in the London suburb of Hampstead. I had a happy childhood, and was raised by great parents. My grandfather had been a silent film producer, who became bankrupt when the talkies came in. As a result, my father was brought up in great poverty, and had to leave school by the age of fourteen. It was very important to him that I should receive the education he was denied, and I felt a lot of pressure on me to succeed academically.

by Annamaria Hemingway

...PETER’S STORY

Excerpted from Practicing Conscious Living and Dying

Stories of the Eternal  Continuum of Consciousness

Available from O Books

www.o-books.com

LALLOUZ INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE: Immortality, continuum, inner peace, unconditional love: an astounding compilation of recorded NDEs, celestial missions, resolute lessons and powerful perceptions into the earthly journey. Annamaria Hemingway’s “Practicing Conscious Living and Dying” is emotionally moving and certain to illuminate those perplexed and fear-induced at the image of death. Purification for the soul. A remarkable read!

-Contessa Rhonda von Sternberg/Editress-in-Chief

“When my son was five, he fell off a teeter-totter and ruptured his spleen. Never in my life had I felt so helpless. Nothing I could say or do seemed to ease his anxiety or pain. Inside, my heart was breaking as I watched him endure blood draws and saw the fear sweep over his face as the IV line was inserted.

It was about midnight, far too late for a five-year-old to be up, much less waiting for surgery to save his life. Then the nurses rolled in the Starlight Starbright Fun Center. I will never forget that moment as long as I live! As my son began to engage in the interactive, fast-paced video games on the Starlight Starbright Fun Center, he was completely transformed. His anxiety and pain gave way to happiness, playfulness and distraction.

From then on, the whole hospital experience changed for both of us, and I came away with a conviction that night: we need Starlight Starbright in EVERY community! Their programs do so much for suffering children like my son.

What my son and I went through that night is just a taste of what families of children with cancer, heart disease, cystic fibrosis and other life-threatening conditions go through for weeks, months and even years on end.”

JAMIE LEE CURTIS

STARLIGHT NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON

STARLIGHT GREAT ESCAPES

PAULA VAN NESS

STARLIGHT CEO

www.YouTube.com/LallouzInternational

Starlight is a 501 (c) (3) organization and meets the comprehensive standards established by the BBB Wise Giving Alliance. The Alliance evaluates charities' finances, governance, fund raising practices, solicitations and informational materials, and spending practices.

British-American film and television producer Peter Samuelson is the Founder of the Starlight Children’s Foundation; an international charitable organization dedicated to granting wishes for seriously ill children. Initially conceptualized with the help of his actress cousin, Emma Samms, Samuelson continued on his quest to gather industry leaders including Steven Spielberg and General Norman Schwarzkopf to further create the Starbright Foundation; a charity dedicated to developing media & technology-based programs to educate and empower children to cope with the medical, emotional and social challenges of their illness. A 2004 merger resulted in the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation with Peter Samuelson as its International Chairman. To view the Starlight PSA or to learn more about how you can help, visit www.starlight.org

Starlight Site Playrooms, Teen Lounges, Waiting Rooms & Playgrounds are youthfully designed to create an inviting hospital environment for pediatric patients, their siblings, and families so that they may have a place to relax and be entertained during hospital stays by offering an expansive menu of high tech and high touch activities. Both children and families are empowered with continuous support for pre, during & post medical treatments via entertainment to better cope with the pain and anxieties of a lengthy illness. Starlight Site Care Rooms are a haven for hospitalized children, whereby young patients receive treatment in a pleasant environment.

Family activities and outings are offered on a regular basis to give families a chance to spend time away from the hospital allowing them to regroup, relax, and return home with a renewed sense of strength and hope. Events such as Starlight Great Escapes serve as a solution to combat isolation, and are ideal for forging connections between families struggling with similar issues.

While physicians work to restore a child's health, Starlight works to reclaim a child’s spirit. Each month, more than 180,000 seriously ill children benefit from Starlight Starbright’s programs specifically designed to distract suffering while helping kids better manage their illnesses.

“No one wants to see a sick child be alone or suffer, or to feel sad and lonely. No one wants parents or brothers and sisters to feel lost and alone. Starlight Great Escapes takes several families to something that’s fun to do, and through doing that there’s community. Not only is there intrinsic value; party-in-a-box, radio flyers, playroom or teen lounge -- partnering with hospitals to make them great places to be!

For the families to be there with each other so that ‘moms talk to moms’ and ‘dads talk to dads’ and brothers and sisters who are probably pretty exhausted with what they’ve been going through, to relate to others who walked down that same road.

And for the kids not to be the only ones in a wheelchair, not to be the only bald one, not to be the only one that’s a little bit tired and a little bit fragile. And so for a little while, whether it’s for an hour or two or three, just to feel normal again.”

See Peter Samuelson’s Exclusive Interview right here on LIM MEDIA.

PAINTING OF “STARLIGHT” BY CHANEL EMMANUELLE LALLOUZ

WWW.CHANELLALLOUZ.COM

We all agreed that this was the perfect name. You could say that the meeting was our second date, because we fell in love and have been together ever since. She became the first treasurer of the organization. 

The Starlight Children’s Foundation has grown into an international nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for seriously ill children and their families.

As Emma related the story to me, I was moved. It reminded me of one of the most devastating memories of my teenage years, when Jamie had contracted his illness and ultimately died. There was enormous pain for all the family; Jamie’s father searched for cures all over the world but at the time, sadly, none existed. We all had to witness a vital, intelligent and greatly loved child just waste away. I always remember the shattering sight of such a very small coffin at his funeral. 

I said to Emma, “Let’s make Sean’s dream come true. Let’s arrange to fly him and his mother over and make the dream a reality.” Shortly after, Sean and his mother arrived in Los Angeles. We couldn’t find a hotel that would accommodate such a sick child, so I moved them all into my condominium, including Emma. 