“Clowning around may be the best kind of medicine”DAVENPORT — Dozens and dozens of kitchen utensils and other odds and ends were scattered across a classroom floor Saturday at St. Ambrose University’s Center for Health Sciences Education. Many people might have spotted a funnel, a lint roller, a comb and a stapler, but the 30 people who sat in a circle around the objects saw more. Unleashing their imaginations, colanders became fencing masks, bowls became magical turtle shells, a Slinky became a fishing pole to catch sharks and a whisk became a magic wand that could turn people into princesses. The classroom was transformed into a Clown World of sorts Saturday, when a group of St. Ambrose psychology and occupational-therapy students and clowns from the Quad City Clown Troupe gathered for the first day of a two-day workshop on improvised clowning to relieve, engage and empower people who are confined to hospitals.
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