Hearts & Noses celebrates record bedside visits, 20th anniversary
Leadership looks ahead to future
As the pioneering Hearts & Noses Hospital Clown Troupe nears its 20th anniversary, the group’s leaders are celebrating a record number of beside visits this past year and anticipating growth on many fronts in the year ahead.
Board Chair, Attorney Jeffrey Clopeck, partner at the Boston office of Day Pitney LLP, who has been involved with the Troupe since 2001, says, “The past year has been so exciting and rewarding. Our volunteers made over 3,000 bedside visits and created countless millions of smiles. We are extremely pleased with the growing relationship with our fourth venue, the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center.” This past year, Hearts & Noses raised a rewarding amount from individuals, foundations and corporate sponsors — including matching gifts
Clopeck, who provides advice and pro bono legal services to the Troupe, attributes the steady growth to the organization’s dedicated, long-time volunteers. “We estimate that our Troupe members donated over $160,000 of volunteer time to young patients in the past year. And we’ve been fortunate to have Dr. Michael Agus, Chief of the Division of Medicine Critical Care at Boston Children’s Hospital, continuing as Hearts & Noses Medical Director, overseeing medical aspects of our program.”
Hearts & Noses operates on a relatively small budget. Expenses include two part-time staff and a grant writer, training sessions and materials, props for clowns, participation in conferences, and design and maintenance of the new website. (www.heartsandnoses.org )
“As we grow to include new hospitals and new populations of children, we need to offer more specialized trainings and support for clowns,” says Executive Director Cheryl Lekousi. “A major new goal for the coming year is to offer specialized visits. That requires different training because we have added mental health units, infusion treatment rooms, Bone Marrow Transplant Center, and others.”
“Besides increasing the number of hospitals we can serve, the number of trained volunteers, and, most importantly, the number of patient visits, we will continue to take a leadership role in the hospital clown troupe movement across the U.S. – always focused on the vision, and following in the footsteps of Hearts & Noses founder Jeannie Lindheim,” Lekousi adds.
Lindheim was inspired by a life-changing trip to Russia with the real Patch Adams, the legendary subject of the 1998 award-winning Robin Williams film.
“The one constant in all of these areas is the children themselves. Play is the work of childhood and so often that is the first thing lost during treatments. Working with the wonderful child life programs at each hospital, our clowns can enter a space ready to make an offer of play, music or quiet support to the children we serve,” says Lekousi.