AATH in the Press
Keepin' 'em In Stitches
| Calgary Sun | April 9, 2006 |
If laughter is indeed the best medicine, patients at the Alberta Children's Hospital are in good hands, thanks to Sparkle the clown.
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Calgary Sun photographer Jim Wells spent a day with Sparkle on her rounds.
Wells captures a healthy slice of Sparkle's life on the Calgary Sun's first web-doc.
Sparkle is one of 35 therapeutic clowns in Canada and is part of a larger network of clowns who believe in the power of laughter as a tool in the healing and medical process.
She spends two days a week at Calgary's ACH, meeting kids and their families and brightening their day during what can be the most trying of times.
Sparkle is a member of the Family and Community Resource Centre and became the first unionized clown in Canada when she started at the hospital.
Her boss Ann Harding, a clinical social worker, calls Sparkle a walking magnet.
In just less than two years, she's already visited nearly 7,000 kids.
Doctors and nurses mend bones and heal children, but Sparkle saves their spirits.
