As I believe you know, I have the distinct honor and pleasure to serve as Chair of the Starlight Children's Foundation. I am writing to you about Starlight and requesting that you help me in reaching a modest fundraising goal I have set for this year. First though, a bit about Starlight and why it's important to me:

Starlight Children's Foundation was established more than a quarter century ago to help seriously ill children and their families cope with their pain, fear and isolation through entertainment, education and family activities. Each MONTH we connect with and touch more than 200,000 kids and their families, and that's just our services in the US and Canada where we partner with more than a thousand hospitals and with families and communities outside the hospital setting. We also are in Britain, Australia and Japan. Our in-hospital programs and services include special Starlight Express Rooms in which kids and their families can play video games and otherwise socialize, bedside Starlight Fun Centers and PC Pals and other in hospital programs. Beyond the hospital environment annually we have hundreds of "Starlight Great Escape" programs and a special web based program called "Starbright World" that enable the kids, their families and others in the community to connect, socialize and just plain have fun, often outlets that otherwise wouldn't be available to them.

What Starlight does really counts and our kids and their families really count on us. We are extremely fortunate to have partnerships with numerous corporate sponsors, but we also need the gifts from people like you and me to make it possible for us to continue our work. I can tell you from first hand experience that what Starlight does is important and valuable.

I give of my own resources, and I'm hopeful that I can convince you to help out as well. While it would be great if you could open your own checkbook and write an amazingly large check for Starlight, what I am asking for now is whatever you think you can do at this time of year and in recognition of our current economic climate: even $25 or $50 would help, as would $100 or $500 or multiples of any of the foregoing.

Do you want to know more about Starlight? Please take a look at our website: www.Starlight.org. Get whatever details you'd like, and, then, I hope you will join me in raising money for this extremely worthwhile cause.

Best wishes of the season to you and all around you.

Ron