While Hearts & Noses Hospital Clown Troupe is known primarily for our work with children in five of Boston’s top hospitals, we are equally proud of the smiles we bring to pediatric patients and friends of other organizations in event settings.
Children with chronic illness have needs beyond the hospital. Hearts & Noses is proud to send clowns to events that support these children. Here are some of the activities and venues where we serve:
- Christmas in the City
- Sickle Cell Holiday Party
- United Homes Holiday Party
- Walk to Stomp Out Sickle Cell Disease
- Relay for Life
- ROFEH International
- Celtics Party for Boston Medical Center
Another organization the Troupe has a long relationship with is TrachCare (www.TrachCare.org), a support group for families with children who are dependent on tracheostomies, ventilators, CPAP or BiPAP, and with various illnesses. TrachCare’s mission is to provide a means for families who share similar experiences of caring for children with permanent trachs due to illness, to connect, share relevant resources and information, and promote an advocacy-focused network.
Cheryl “Tic Toc” Lekousi, Hearts & Noses Executive Director, first met Leslie Gaffney and her daughter Tinka when she brought the Troupe’s special brand of fun to an event sponsored by TrachCare. (See related story by Leslie below.) Clowning helps Tinka and other children in the event setting just as it does in the hospitals.
“Clowning can happen where ever the children need us,” said Lekousi. “While we see more than 3000 children at the bedside each year we also connect with children who have chronic illnesses, disabilities and/or are homeless at events each year. Even in a group setting our clowns can find the one-on- one moments of play that each child needs.”
“That’s what friends are for…”
By Leslie Gaffney (Tinka’s Mom)
“We first met the charming and wonderful Tic Toc in May 2009. At a Spring Fling event for TrachCare, a Boston-based support group for families of children with trachs. There she was, walking her invisible dinosaur, in the lovely Larz Anderson Park. My daughter was enthralled and Tic Toc (Cheryl Lekousi) and Tinka bonded instantly.
Tinka was around 6 and had already been through a ridiculous amount of surgeries. She was born with Nager Syndrome, which mostly involves craniofacial and limb anomalies that require years of corrective surgeries. Hearing loss and abnormal hearing structures meant chronic ear infections and ear tube surgeries. In short, she’s endured lots of poking, prodding and trips to the OR. In the course of it all, Tinka has developed a lot of fears and aversions to hospital-related things.
During that 2009 meeting, I mentioned to Tic Toc that we were preparing to travel to North Carolina for extensive craniofacial surgery, and Tinka would have be to away from home, school and friends for over a month. Tic Toc arranged for her friend Sweetnose , another Hearts & Noses clown who would be in North Carolina at the same time, to pay Tinka a surprise visit at a nearby playground in Charlotte. The two had a great time swinging, sliding and teeter tottering. (Photo: Tinka and new friend Sweetnose teeter-totttered in Charlotte, NC) Sweetnose did some magic tricks and told TInka she had to wear the red clown nose or the tricks wouldn’t work. Tinka’s face was swollen from surgery and she was uncomfortable, but that afternoon gave her a lot of joy and she looks back on it fondly.
Tinka is 14 now and we find ourselves in North Carolina again for more surgery. It’s only a minor procedure, but the time leading up to it brought on the same fears and tears. Tinka is intelligent, brave — and sensitive. She tells me what she does and doesn’t like. One anxiety-inducing practice is that the children’s hospital in Charlotte doesn’t allow a parent to go back to the OR with their child and stay there until they fall asleep before surgery, whereas in Boston they do.
The clowns of Hearts and Noses have a special way of reaching these kids and drawing them out. They know just how much is too much, change tactics on the fly when they sense a certain item or action might be a trigger. They bring humor, song and magic into these children’s lives when they have to endure painful or uncomfortable procedures. Kids might even be far from home in another state or country for a long time … but they know they have a friend to cheer them every time. And that friend has a round red nose.”