What would you consider the ultimate self-indulgence? Silk sheets or a padded seat for the john? Maybe Godiva chocolate - rich truffles at five bucks a bite. Naw! It's a relaxing massage (instant Nirvana), and it benefits the March of Dimes at the same time.
The Rub Club Seated Massage Co., 311 S. Main, is sponsoring a 24-hour Massage-A-Thon Friday, March 22, at $1 a minute. For however many moments of pure bliss one cares to buy, the March of Dimes gets an assist in the fight against birth defects, and the lucky purchaser will feel stress rubbed away in mere minutes.Marty Rynearson and Rupert Jones are owners of the Rub Club - a place far, FAR removed from the stereotypical "massage parlor." Soothing reggae music plays in the background while patrons are seated, leaning forward in a padded chair. "That's an Oakworks Portal Pro chair, the Cadillac of chairs," said Rynearson. "It costs $500."
"This is a unique product," Rynearson said. "No appointment necessary, and we can bring the massage to you." Rynearson says that the term "on-site massage" was coined by David Palmer in the Bay Area. The comfortable massage chair weighs only 18 pounds, enabling the Rub Club to go to its customers if they desire. The Rub Club opened in Salt Lake City in June 1995. Owners Rynearson and Jones are licensed massage therapists - Rynearson graduated from the Utah College of Massage Therapy with 750 hours of training.
The Rub Club employs four licensed massage therapists full time and has another seven to 10 for out-calls.
The Deseret News captured Nicole Walker blissing out while Rynearson erased the kinks she'd accumulated working at the Judge Cafe. There is no disrobing, you can walk in off the street with no appointment and melt into a puddle of relaxation.
Rynearson would also like to rub out birth defects. In addition to the 24-hour "Massage-A-Thon" from noon Friday, March 22, to noon Saturday, March 23, the Rub Club will send out the "O'Malley Boys" through Saturday, March 16, to perform a "hit" on the "mark" of your choice. For $23.95, one of the O'Malleys will come to a home or office to "rub-out" (a 30-minute Double Rub) the wife, husband, boss or girlfriend of your choice. Call 537-RUBB or leave voice mail at 464-7816.
Utah State March of Dimes director Ray Olson is thrilled that the Rub Club is taking a "hands-on" approach to defeating birth defects. Olson said that in just one day, of the 11,420 babies born in the United States, 410 will be born with birth defects and 22 of those babies will die because of the defects. "There are too many days in a week and far too many days in a month for this many babies and parents to be suffering," he said.
The March of Dimes was founded in 1936 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to find a cure for polio. Funds were raised by the organization for the research that ultimately led to a vaccine.
But in the four decades since then the March of Dimes has also fought for the health of America's babies by:
- Developing the PKU screening test to prevent some forms of mental retardation.
- Establishing neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) to care for critically ill babies.
- Discovering that drinking during pregnancy can cause mental retardation.
- Using fetal surgery to correct birth defects.
- Developing surfactant therapy to treat respiratory distress syndrome (RDS).
- Developing the research in the first attempts to treat birth defects through gene therapy.
The March of Dimes educates and supports birth defect prevention research. Twenty-six scientists who have worked with the March of Dimes have received the Nobel Prize.
Call Marty or Rubert at 537-RUBB for a relaxing massage and send your tax-deductible dollars on a march for the nation's babies.