Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
living at the institute, preparing the land, and building the community that will sustain the
hospital once it is built. Volunteers of all stripes are welcome.
NUT-WORKING
For more than 20 years, Patch Adams has been involved in what he calls “clown
healing work.” He and a posse of clowns have visited hospitals on every continent.
For nearly 20 years, he has taken clowns to Russia for two weeks of clowning in
hospitals, orphanages, prisons, and nursing homes. In 2006, Patch and 45 clowns
and 8 builders constructed a seven-room clinic in Perquin, El Salvador. He and 22
clowns from six continents took ten tons of aid into the war of Afghanistan. He has
taken clowns into the war in Bosnia, the Kosovo refugee camps, Romanian AIDS
orphanages, African refugee camps, and tsunami relief camps in Sri Lanka.
WACKY HOSPITAL
The 40-room Gesundheit Hospital will be completely free, with no malpractice in-
surance and no third-party insurance. If you think that's wacky, you ought to get a
load of the architectural blueprints. A giant ear sticks off one end of the building and
giant feet mark the entrance. Below the main hospital floor, there's a waterway that
allows people to travel from one end to the other via paddle-boat. Beautiful murals
cover the walls, toys line the floors, and secret doorways and slides add mystique
and amusement.
A significant component of the Gesundheit experience is education. Programs are based
on Patch's vision for world peace, social justice, and the recognition that the health of the
individual cannot be separated from the health of the community. The idea is that volunteers
should learn about Gesundheit's utopian ideas so they can return to their homes and spread
the vision.
While living at Gesundheit, volunteers might prepare fresh whole food for the three
dozen or so attendees of the institute's annual School for Designing a Society or build a deck
on the back of the barn or collect buckets of sugar maple sap. For their community service
projects, they might don red noses for clowning at the Pocahontas Care Center in Marlinton
or pick up trash along U.S. 219 between Locust Creek Road and Hillsboro.
Every year, the institute hosts three four-day visitor weekends in April, July, and Septem-
ber (where volunteers work for a day or two), as well as an increasing number of educational
