At the age of 44, Ken Sadler packed up his wife, 3 kids, two dogs and a cat and took off from New Orleans for a 2 year sail in the Caribbean on a 52 ft ketch. Homeschooling their kids before homeschooling was named, it was the adventure of a lifetime. Once they took off on that boat, there was no going back to life as usual in New Orleans.
They ended up on the Chesapeake, and started a new life in Oxford. Sadler left the insurance industry behind, and has since opened up a clay studio where he still makes functional pottery in Easton.
[slideshow id=84]
Six years ago, he was having dinner with sailing friends who were talking about clown school. “Wham-O – I just knew that was going to be the place for me”, he says. Within two months he went to Philadelphia and trained under Bumper T – the founder of Caring Clowns – an organization that provides laugh and love therapy in hospitals in 30+ hospitals in the Mid-Atlantic.
Sadler brought Bumper T himself back to Easton, and together, they visited the department heads of the Memorial Hospital at Easton. Dressed in clown costumes, wearing stethoscopes with big plastic ears on the ends, the team did their shtick for the leadership at the hospital. It was a go. They were invited to start in the Requard Center for Acute Rehabilitation unit of the hospital, visiting once a week to lighten up patients and hospital staff.
Word traveled quickly, and soon staff members on every floor of the hospital were requesting visits by Dr. Goodwrench. He was glad to comply.
Today, Sadler has a team of three Doctors and Nurses, and is looking for more. Volunteers all, the Caring Clowns bring light spirited play to the hospital. “Our mission is to get the patient’s mind off of whatever is scaring or hurting them – even for one minute. Our main job is to listen, and the clown costume just breaks the ice”, he says.
On a Tuesday in February, Dr. Goodwrench met up with his new assistant, Brenda Stone, also known as Nurse Lilly Belle. A retired nurse, Lilly Belle isn’t new to clowning. Her mother was also a nurse and a clown for years, visiting nursing homes and mental hospitals. Lilly Belle adopted her mother’s clown name and her nursing cape. It’s clear that both caring and clowning come naturally to her.
They started in a group therapy session, where six patients were quietly doing physical therapy around a large table. When the clowns entered the room, eyebrows were raised. The staff started giggling, and it took only a minute before Dr. Goodwrench was offering to do a nose job on one of the patients – “it’s the only surgery I’m allowed to do”, he said. David Cutshaw smiled as he let Dr. Goodwrench affix a red clown nose onto his own, and chuckled as cameras snapped shots of the successful surgery.
A few minutes later, Lilly Belle was joking with staff persons in the elevator, Dr. Goodwrench was putting smiley stickers on the janitor, and together, they knocked at a patient’s door. Tentative, the patient wasn’t sure about the clowns entering her room. Skillfully, tenderly, Dr. Goodwrench approached her bed, and with compassion and kindness he reached out his hand.
The patient told the team about her excruciating pain. They listened. Moments later, she let Dr. Goodwrench examine her funny bone – “you are really going to need this”, he told her. Holding the stethoscope at her elbow, both he and Lilly Belle listened carefully. “Nothing”, he said. One short treatment later, they listened again, and a laughter soundtrack appeared out of nowhere. The patient smiled. Success!
After less than five minutes in the room, the team made motions to leave, but by this time, the patient was reluctant to let them go. If the goal was to help this woman get her mind off of her pain, it was evident that Dr. Goodwrench and Nurse Lilly Belle’s excellent treatment worked wonders. The patient was smiling as they left.
“Attitudinal healing”, Nurse Lilly Belle calls it, “where giving and receiving are the same”. “Some of our most important work is with the staff”, says Sadler. “Each staff person has so much contact with patients and families. If we can just lighten their load, lift their spirits, it can have a dramatic effect on a lot of people”.
According to Linda Mastro, director of corporate communications, Shore Health System, “These generous volunteers cheer up our staff and bring smiles to patients and visitors. They have a particularly good time when they encounter one a real physician making rounds. Dr. Goodwrench especially likes to engage in banter with any of his physician ‘colleagues’ when their paths cross in the hospital.”
Click here for more information about Bumper T Caring Clowns. And if you think you might want to try out to become a Caring Clown yourself, you can reach Ken Sadler by email.
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.