Word: christensen
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...would a clown give up the big top for hospital rounds? To Christensen, the C.C.U. is more than work; it's a calling. "This project came out of an unconscious place in myself," he explains. "After going through those feelings of loss and of grief around my brother's death five years ago, this gave me a feeling of celebration and joy, of healing after his loss. Call it love and caring, God, a higher consciousness -- whatever -- I want to give my life to that...
Clown Care got its start in 1986, when an official at Babies Hospital asked if Big Apple Circus clowns would entertain at a gathering for patients and their families. Christensen and fellow clown Jeff Gordon obliged, performing a 20-minute parody of hospital personnel, food and procedures. Patients and staff alike roared with laughter, especially when the clowns coaxed the otherwise formal chief surgeon into participating in a silly bell-ringing routine. The session, says Christensen, was "the most fulfilling 20 minutes of my professional career, and it was from that experience that the C.C.U. plan took root...
With $10,000 in grant money from the Altman Foundation, used mostly for props, salaries and administrative overhead, Christensen and the Big Apple Circus designed a five-week pilot program. As he tuned in to the needs of his new audience, Christensen made changes in his timing and toned down his circus-arena makeup and gestures to suit the bedside. Perhaps the most daunting hurdle was earning the respect and support of the medical staff. "They had to accept that we were there as part of their world," he says...
...program's hugely successful trial period, Christensen and the circus had no trouble finding further funding from a number of local and national foundations and corporations. He recalls only one voice of opposition. "A hospital staff member once said, 'Clowns don't belong in the Intensive Care Unit.' So I said, 'Neither do children...
Often it's just as important to reach the parents as it is to entertain the youngsters. One morning Christensen peeked into a floor lounge and saw a woman sitting in a chair, reading a magazine; a man -- perhaps her husband -- was on the couch, intent on a novel. Stubs asked gently, "Mind if I come in? I need to catch up on some paperwork." He sat on the couch and starting ripping sheets of legal paper off a pad, crumpling them up and stuffing them into his doctor's bag. He soon piqued the adults' curiosity. "Office work...