Nintendo donates Starlight Starbright’s 5,000th Fun Center

Starlight Starbright 5000 Fun CentersNintendo of America, longtime manufacturer of Fun Centers for the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation, is donating the 5,000th Fun Center to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. on Oct. 12 with the help of Jamie Lee Curtis. First designed by Nintendo and Starlight Starbright more than a decade ago to combat the anxiety and weariness faced by hospitalized children, the latest Fun Center model includes a Sharp AQUOS liquid crystal flat-screen monitor, a DVD player and a Nintendo GameCube system.

Jamie Lee Curtis has been a proponent of the Fun Center ever since her son was hospitalized at age 5 with a ruptured spleen. “The nurses rolled in a Starlight Starbright Fun Center, and he was completely transformed. His anxiety and pain gave way to happiness, playfulness and distraction,” said Jamie Lee. “That night I came away with a conviction: We need Fun Centers in every hospital!”

“It is fitting that Starlight Starbright’s 5,000th Fun Center is a gift from Nintendo; we wouldn’t have it any other way,” said Don James, Executive Vice President, Operations of Nintendo. “I’m also pleased to announce that we will begin shipping new-and-improved Fun Centers to hospitals starting in summer 2007.”

The new Fun Centers will feature Wii, Nintendo’s newest home console which is poised to be one of the hottest gifts for the holiday shopping season when it launches in November. Wii lets users control the action on the screen through the motion of the Wii Remote controller itself. It’s designed to be playable by kids, adults and even grandparents. It has great games, but also is easy enough that anyone can pick it up and start playing, even if they’ve never played a video game before.

“While diversion is the Fun Center’s primary purpose, these entertainment centers do much more — they improve the quality of a pediatric patient’s life,” said Paula Van Ness, CEO of Starlight Starbright. “Tens of thousands of Starlight Starbright children and their families join us in thanking Nintendo for its steadfast commitment to making a world of difference.”

In addition to manufacturing the units, Nintendo has also sponsored more than 3,500 of the 5,000 placed to date. The company donates some units through an annual corporate gift and others through a matching program. These efforts have yielded a remarkable in-kind donation of more than $3 million to Starlight Starbright. More than 1,000 hospitals throughout North America have received one or more Fun Center units since the program’s inception.

“Cedars-Sinai was a lucky recipient of one of the very first Fun Centers back in 1992, so we’ve seen over and over again how they transform the hospital experience for children,” said Charles F. Simmons, Jr., M.D., chairman of the pediatrics department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. “It is our goal that one day each of our pediatric rooms will be equipped with its very own Fun Center — we value them that much.”

James also announced that Nintendo would increase its corporate funding to Starlight Starbright, so that even more patients will be able to benefit from them. The ease with which Fun Centers roll right up to the side of young patients’ beds or anywhere in a hospital setting makes them perfect for hospitalized children in numerous situations: anticipating surgery, during long outpatient clinic treatments, waiting in the emergency room or fighting loneliness after visiting hours have ended. It is this versatility that has made Fun Centers an invaluable tool in Starlight Starbright’s programmatic efforts to counter the isolation and fear often experienced by sick children. Caregivers report that Fun Center use may even result in a reduced need for
pain medication. To learn more about the Fun Center program or to view our current hospital waiting list, visit www.starlight.org/funcenter.

The first of seven hospitals in California whose nurses have been honored with the prestigious Magnet designation, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is one of the largest nonprofit academic medical centers in the Western United States. For 19 consecutive years, it has been named Los Angeles’ most preferred hospital for all health needs in an independent survey of area residents. Cedars-Sinai is internationally renowned for its diagnostic and treatment capabilities and its broad spectrum of programs and services, as well as breakthroughs in biomedical research and superlative medical education. It ranks among the top 10 non-university hospitals in the nation for its research activities and is fully accredited by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs, Inc. (AAHRPP). Additional information is available at www.cedars-sinai.edu.

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 that touch the lives of more than 180,000 children and families each month. To learn more visit www.starlight.org.

Created exclusively by program partner Nintendo of America, the Fun Center design is the latest example of the company’s extraordinary commitment to the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation. Nintendo’s ongoing support of the Foundation has resulted in a donation of over $3 million and the placement of over 3,600 Fun Centers in hospitals worldwide. In addition, they continuously match Fun Center sponsorships from other corporate donors.