Day Three

Isn't that a great looking group!

We were very busy today, making two trips to perform at local senior living centers.  We got going right away putting on our makeup and costumes to head out the door right after breakfast.

Haha!  Clown car!  

Our first stop was Iona Senior Center, where we did a little performance and some demonstration of the three basic necessities in clowning - juggling, balance, and slap-stick comedy.

Here is Cetta jumping rope on top of a globe ball.  Everyone was very impressed!

And here we have Maddie and Annie, being cool surfer clowns on the rolla-bollas while TJ shows off his unicycle skills.  Again, very impressive, especially in such tight quarters.  We ended with a little social time with the residents, who were so thrilled to hear about where each girl is from and how long it took her to learn how to juggle. 

We even met one woman who attended Sacred Heart in Newton, MA.

What a small small world it is.  Or perhaps it is not so small, but our Network is just that strong!

Either way, it is pretty remarkable.

After lunch, we were off to our next performance...

At Hillhaven, we performed for three different groups for each of the levels of care the center provides.  We rotated performers so that the residents had the opportunity to talk to and see the skills of each clown.

At the assisted living level of Hilldale, we even had some volunteers who wanted to learn to juggle!

Overall a very successful day, topped off by a fantastic ham dinner by Chef von Oehsen.

We ended our third day of Clown Academy with a fantastic reflection led by Krystyna and Ingrid.  We had the opportunity to each share the high and low point of our day which led to some great discussion about the fragility of life and the heroic work that the nurses and aids at the senior living homes do each day.  Then, one final friendly game of Sardines and off to bed. 

Day Two

Well, day two was another huge success.  The clowns-in-training brushed up on all of their skills from last summer and even learned some new ones in the first few hours of the day!  Here is Ingrid juggling the clubs, a newly acquired skill. Caitlin got some rings from her parents and has clearly been practicing. Jackie is our resident juggling teacher (I am afraid I am her worst student) and behind her you see Krystyna showing off her balancing abilities!

Once the trapeze was securely in place, the girls were up in the air in no time! 

Hi Maddie!

Here is Jillian, just chillin!

Abbi has some serious acrobat skills!  But some rope burn and sore muscles brought us back down to the ground before long...

After a lunch of mac & cheese and pb&j, we had a great circus yoga session outside to stretch out our muscles while we digested and relaxed a bit.

Much love to our 4 rising seniors Krystyna, Jackie, Caitlin, and Ingrid! 

Who later looked like this...  

The Children's Inn, which serves as a residence for children and their families undergoing treatment at the National Institute of Health hospitals here in Bethesda.  It is a very similar setup to the Ronald McDonald House.  Given space and security constraints, we were only able to send our four most senior clowns to perform for the children and families there today.  But the rest of us managed to stay busy preparing acts for our two performances tomorrow...

Once we had all worked up an appetite again, we headed up to the original mansion at Stone Ridge, Hamilton House, for dinner with Mrs. Karrels, the Head of School here.  

Group shot!

And then we winded down our evening with a quite reflection, led by Jackie and Caitlin, of all of the blessings in our lives that have allowed us to be here, having this experience with each other.

Many thanks to all and sweet dreams. 

Check back in tomorrow to hear how our performances went!

Day One - continued

Here we are at Stone Ridge, our home for the next week!

Once all the girls arrived, we navigated through the DC Metro system to American University.  There is a national conference for Bread for the World, an organization aiming to end world hunger, happening there this week.  Some of our fellow Sacred Hearties are currently on another summer service project there, so we went to meet up with them for dinner.

It was great to see some familiar faces and connect with more of our Sacred Heart sisters!  It is opportunities like this that make us so grateful for the Network to which we all belong.  After dinner and an African dance performance by a group from Uganda, we headed back to our Stone Ridge digs.

Let the clowning begin... at 8:00 am tomorrow morning!  

Goodnight!

Day One

Well it is the first day of Clown Academy and Tom, TJ, and I are here at the beautiful Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart waiting for the arrival of our 9 clowns-in-training.  It looks like the facilities are more than adequate, complete with a pool, tennis courts, and even a rock climbing wall!  What more could a bunch of clowns ask for?!