While Maria Menounos may live a life in the spotlight, the E! star never forgets to give back to those in need.
The 36-year-old beauty, along with her charity Take Action Hollywood, hosted the 8th annual Day of Beauty at Children's Hospital in Los Angeles on Friday, where the author, along with Dancing With the Stars' Val Chmerkovskiy put a much needed smile on the patient's faces.
During their time at the hospital, Menounos, along with her pals and team of celebrity makeup artists, spent the day giving makeovers and gift bags to all the participating patients and their families with the help of Universal, WWE and other sponsors.
"We started ten years ago…it basically started because I was getting flooded with people sending me free things and I'm like, ‘Wait? Why am I getting all this stuff?'" Menounos shared with E! News. "There are people who need it so much more so it kinda gave me the idea to go and spoil the kids at the Children's Hospital…so I started putting together this Day of Beauty...and I bring in the top hair and makeup artists…so they do their hair and makeup…we do manicures and pedicures, a photo booth, so it's really fun day."
For the patients who are too sick to attend the event, Maria and her team go on "room visits" so the kids don't miss out on the fun. "We go to the kids who can't come to us and we bring huge gift bags and cheer them up and chat with them," she said.
As for the most rewarding aspect of the annual event?
"It's always when you hear things like...'We haven't seen her smile since she got here or we haven't seen him talk to anyone' and to just get them to forget, for a minute, what they're dealing with and knowing that we can do that is the best," she gushed clearly proud of the charity's honorable work.
She added: "That's the most rewarding part, is to see these kids just get to be kids and just get to have fun and forget about these awful, awful diseases that they're battling."
Menounos also noted that the patients have very little contact with the outside world, which is one of the many reasons why it's so fulfilling to bring a touch of Hollywood to the hospital (after all, these kids deserve A-list treatment!).
"I think the thing that people don't realize is that these kids are living in a hospital room," she explained. "And the only contact they have with the outside world is maybe a little window they can look out of…imagine that's all you get in the real world. Otherwise you're getting needles and medicine and horrible news and it's the best feeling in the world to be able to go in and give them that kind of feeling."
So how can you get involved if you, too, want to lend a helping hand?
"Find out where your local Children's Hospital is or any local hospital and volunteer," Menounos said. "That's the best way. And if it's somebody who's in a position to gift things, they can reach out to us through the website."
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