Gesundheit! News

Current Campaign

NEW GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGN! For 35 years, Dr. Patch Adams and the Gesundheit Institute have worked on a model of health care that puts care at the center of health. Gesundheit has launched a grassroots campaign to raise $1 million in 08-09 to create a Teaching Center and Clinic where health care practitioners will gather to further ideas and strategies for changing the health care system. A major donor campaign is expected to raise an additional $9 million. With your help, we will establish a physical center to demonstrate an ongoing, working model of joy in service.

• Read more about the campaign
• Help put the care back in health care by donating.
• If you are interested in learning more about our major donor campaign, contact one of our Development Staff.
• NEW: Fun-raising t-shirt design contest

Educational Opportunities

2009, YEAR OF HOPE AND CHANGE: THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX—DESIGN DESIRABLE HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS! • Feb 2–5, 2009 at the Visionary Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.  Interactive teaching sessions and small group work will enable participants to “build their own”—develop their own ideas and desires for their ideal health care practice. Speaker and project presentations will tell us “what’s out there?”—informing us about actual models, structures, and practices going on right now that act as models for inspiration and influence. Patch Adams MD, the Gesundheit doctors and practitioners, and School for Designing a Society teachers will be actively present in all sessions during the conference. Co-sponsored by the Emory University School of Medicine. CME credits available.
Read more & apply!  Apply soon - the deadline extended to January 22nd!
Read more about the intensives

THE SCHOOL FOR DESIGNING A SOCIETY • July 10–17, 2009 on the Gesundheit land in West Virginia. During the Institute, the question "What would I consider a desirable society?" is given serious playful thought, and taken as input to creative projects. Read more ...

HEALTH CARE JUSTICE GATHERING • December 31, 2008–January 3, 2009  Co-sponsored by the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) and the Gesundheit! Institute, these gatherings take place in January on the land in West Virginia and emphasize compassion and social justice in medicine.
Read more

Upcoming Clown Trips

THREE ALTERNATIVE SPRING BREAK TRIPS March 7-14, led by Gesundheit Staff clowns.
Haiti There are still 3 open spots. Clowning in Mercy and Sharing Orphanage facilties in Port-au-Prince, our second mission there. Cost $1000, not including air travel to Haiti. Sign up by emailing both Bonnie Ham at hamba at jmu.edu and John Glick, MD at jawkneemail at comcast.net
Nicaragua Alternative Spring Break will take us to clown at children's and youth projects run by a number of service organizations in and around Managua, including one of Latin America's most publicized garbage dumps. This is our first trip there and the children are already excited to hear that the clowns are coming. Cost $800, not including air fare. Total of 11 open spots. Sign up by emailing both Jessica Shelburne at and John Glick at jawkneemail at comcast.net.
Guatemala Alternative Spring Break will take us to Guatemala City, clowning in hospitals, special needs facilities and other care settings. The cost of this mission is $1000 not including air fare. Total of 14 open spots. Register by emailing Charlotte Smith Huggins at ctsaroacean at aol.com and John Glick at jawkneemail at comcast.net
So get your passports and clown noses together!

Recent Events

EDUCARE AL DESIDERIO IN PRUNO, ITALY • November 24–29, 2008 "Education in Wanting, Not Just Knowing" A seminar offered by Clown One Italia Onlus and the School for Designing a Society in Italian and English ... We human beings need to strengthen not only our knowing, but also our wanting—the ability to see that something is missing, that things could be otherwise. This is the 2nd year that SDAS offers a 7-day workshop in desire, design, performance, interaction and fun in this mountain village in Italy. Openings are still available. To apply, email Ginevra Sanguigno
For more info, visit http://www.designingasociety.org

25th ANNUAL RUSSIA CLOWN TRIP • November 5–22, 2008. Patch Adams has been leading an annual clown trip to hospitals and orphanages in Moscow and St. Petersberg for 25 years. Although every trip involves Maria's Children and other Russian friends, every trip is different, with new friendships made. No prior clowning experience necessary.  Read more ...

THE JOHN M. STANG, MD MEDICAL ELECTIVE • Sept 29–Oct 23, 2008: "Humanistic Medicine: Constructing Your Humanism." This elective at the site of the future model hospital in West Virginia provides braided learning for the teaching of humanism in medicine using both didactic and project-based approaches. For all interested stake-holders in health care—pre-med students, medical students, nursing students, activists, scholars. Elective credit can be arranged. Read more.

JAPAN CLOWN TOUR with Patch Adams • September 11–19, 2008. This will be the first clown tour in Japan. Visit hospitals and institutions with Patch Adams to present love, smiles, and healing for patients, elderly persons, physically challenged persons, families and medical staff. Read more ...

BELEN PROJECT AUGUST 2008: The Fun Continues; Community Grows. Gesundheit Global Outreach brought a large clown team to the Pueblo Libre neighborhood of Iquitos/Belen, Peru, the fourth such trip, including house painting, performance, work with community organizations. Read John Glick's report here.

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX 2008: Re-Design Our Health Care System • August 6–11. A 5-day working conference at the Gesundheit Institute in Hillsboro West Virginia. The aim was to seed a variety of designs of projects at the local level, that will fundamentally change the health care system for the better. Read more here.
For reflections on the 2007 conference, read here

ITALY IN JUNE: Humanitarian Clown Trip • June 20–30. This was our 6th Clown trip to Italy, spreading joy by clowning in hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, on the streets. Read the full announcement

HAITI: WE ALL NEED EACH OTHER—Reflections on Spring Break Trip. We who have been the core of Gesundheit humanitarian clowning for decades started taking groups of students on spring-break trips to poor countries to clown. We want young people to experience what happens in themselves when they see that their actions of love and healing relieve suffering. Read more ...

HEALTH CARE JUSTICE RETREAT • January 2-5, 2008: Update. Thirty medical students involved gathered on the Gesundheit land in West Virginia to start the New Year with new ideas for the health care relationship. This retreat was organized by students involved in the American Medical Students Association. Please stay in touch to hear about future retreats.

PERU REPORT: Gesundheit completes its 8th Humanitarian Clown Trip for 2007. Gesundheit returned to Peru in December 2007, bringing several dozen high school aged youth from Camp Winnarainbow to offer fun and friendship and improve health care and sanitation in the area. Read about past clown trips ...

ITALY REPORT: Scuola per Projettare una Societa… in Pruno. The School for Designing a Society and the Gesundheit Institute held a one week workshop in Pruno, Italy at the end of November, 2007. SDAS worked with Italian students, artists, priests, and community organizers to imagine, in the media of performance, music, and writing, a society based on desirable premises. Read reflections on the SDAS blog ...