
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 11, 1995                   TAG: 9506090060
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: PAUL LOMARTIRE COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

STARS ARE ON CALL TO PHONE SICK KIDS

Studio teachers, the backstage private tutors for child actors, just have to show up for work and they can hit up the biggest showbiz stars for favors. Luckily, many do.

Famous Fone Friends is a free service run by an all-volunteer group of studio teachers with great celebrity access. They match sick children with a free phone call from a celebrity.

Veteran studio teacher Linda Stone (``Family Matters'') started the service in July 1986 after her daughter, Susie Elster, a physical therapist, encountered a young burn victim at Los Angeles Children's Hospital who balked at treatment.

``He was flailing around and did not want to go through the hydro-therapy,'' recalled Stone. ``Susie said, `Gee, you look like you're break dancing.' He said, `How do you know about break dancing?' She told him, `My mother's working on a movie with Boogaloo Shrimp' [a popular break dancer at the time].''

Susie cut a deal with the kid. If he'd do the hydrotherapy, she'd get her mother to ask Boogaloo Shrimp to call him.

That was the first celebrity call for nonprofit, L.A.-based, Famous Fone Friends.

``I became aware of our networking ability and the value of reaching out to kids who are hospitalized, with some of the stars that they see on television or on the screen,'' Stone said.

The studio teachers network to reach actors who are asked to make a single phone call to a hospitalized child. Any type of bonding is discouraged because of the potential breakdown and letdown for the sick kids.

Entertainers such as Paul Reubens, Henry Winkler, Nancy Cartwright (voice of Bart Simpson), Robin Williams, Reba McEntire, L.A. Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, Kellie Martin (``Christy''), Fred Savage (``Wonder Years''), Cleveland Indians pitcher Orel Hershiser, John Stamos (``Full House''), Richard Dean Anderson (``MacGyver'') and Disney boss Michael Eisner have made Fone Friends calls.

Fone Friends has gone from serving three L.A. hospitals in 1986 to more than 200 around the country today. About 10 to 15 requests are received each week from parents and hospitals and every child receives a call.

Professional athletes and rock musicians are the toughest to line up, Stone said, in part, because they fall out of the reach of studio teachers.

Actors who supply the voices of cartoon characters such as the Ninja Turtles are popular. The Fone Friends success rate matching sick kids with first- or second-choice celebrities is 100 percent.

The Fone Friends yearly budget of about $1,500 is spent mostly on brochures and mailing. Any cash donations from grateful parents or others are turned away to eliminate potential problems.

Just before Christmas each year, Bear Stearns & Co. Inc., an L.A. investment firm, donates its offices and telephones for a full day of phone calls placed by as many as 75 celebrities to sick kids around the country.

The only problem with this service is that a group of teachers agreed to a misspelling of phone.

``Oh, I know,'' Stone laughs.

But, hey, it's show biz.

For more information, call or fax Famous Fone Friends: 310-204-5683.

by CNB