Pediatric Foundation

About 40 Ventura County children suffering from chronic asthma will be attending camp today and Friday in Somis. Called the Southern California Asthmatic Medical Program Camp, or SCAMP Camp, the event will allow children ages 8 to 14 with moderate to severe asthma to participate in swimming, running, games and crafts as well as asthma management education. "We push them at camp to see that they can exercise," said Dr.

Can a group of hogs really bring home the bacon? Hawthorne Mayor Larry Guidi thinks so. Guidi has sent invitations to more than 200 aficionados of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, affectionately known as hogs, to participate in the first Mayors' Ride for the Pediatric AIDS Foundation on Oct. 22. The apostrophe goes after the "s" because Guidi has also invited 84 area mayors to participate.

The National Park Service and a Thousand Oaks health club are teaming up Sunday to put on the third annual Caring for Kids Trail Run at Paramount Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The event, which consists of a 5K race and a one-mile family fun walk, will benefit the Children's Lifesaving Foundation and the Landon Pediatric Foundation. The race and walk will take place along the trails and the old western town at Paramount Ranch on Cornell Road.

Denise Martin, who gained fame as the lunch lady on CBS' reality show "Survivor: China," is donating the $50,000 she received from producer Mark Burnett to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Martin told viewers on Sunday night's live finale that she'd been demoted to janitor at a school in Douglas, Mass., after finishing fourth on the show. After hearing her story, Burnett surprised Martin with the money to help get her life back.

Rupert Boneham, the bushy-bearded giant from Indianapolis who was an audience favorite during two "Survivor" games, is donating $100,000 to help troubled children. The donation will launch Rupert's Kids Inc., designed to help troubled youth and provide affordable housing for the poor in Indianapolis, said Boneham, who won a $1-million consolation prize during a special edition of the CBS game. Boneham, 40, appeared on "Survivor: All-Stars" and "Survivor: Pearl Islands."

"Pigtails and Froglegs" (Neiman Marcus, $19.95) contains 275 recipes virtually guaranteed to soothe or entertain children: e.g., the pizza with a mouse face contributed by Wolfgang Puck. It's also a very high-minded book, with an introduction by Michael Jackson ("Food is love and caring, security and hope") and royalties benefiting Childhelp USA, Pediatric AIDS Foundation, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the Special Olympics.

The class-action lawsuit that two irate moviegoers filed against Sony Pictures over the use of bogus critic quotes in ads for "A Knight's Tale" is moving toward settlement, according to the trade paper Hollywood Reporter. The settlement involves a $1.5-million fund set up by Sony to compensate individual movie ticket-buyers as much as $5, sources confirmed. Anything left over in the fund will go to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

Christina Ricci, Samuel L. Jackson, Drew Carey, Lisa Kudrow and Dustin Hoffman, along with studio brass Sherry Lansing (Paramount), Joe Roth (Disney) and Jeffrey Katzenberg (DreamWorks), were among the Hollywood elite who turned out for Sunday's benefit premiere of "Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace" at Westwood's Avco theater.

The Swift Foundation has awarded grants ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 to a number of Ventura County health-care groups and four students. The nonprofit organization, formed in 1985, evaluates the health-care needs of the community and provides money twice yearly to organizations it considers worthwhile and to students pursuing employment in the medical field.