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| (Left to Right) Posing in the Pediatric Playroom at The Children’s Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center with the newly donated Jester & Pharley Smile Cart are Kristin Kuhi, Certified Child Life Specialist, Pediatrics; Debra Petersen, RN, Nurse Manager, Pediatrics; Beth Baratz, MS, Certified Child Life Specialist, The Valerie Center; Macaroni Anne Cheeze the clown (Meg Milligan); and Valerie Center patient, 7-year-old Tori Lee of Oakhurst, NJ. |
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Long Branch, New Jersey, June 28, 2011---- Popular local clown Meg Milligan, also known as Macaroni Anne Cheeze, recently presented a Jester & Pharley Smile Cart to The Children’s Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center.
The Jester & Pharley Smile Carts are part of the Southern California-based Jester & Pharley Phund’s efforts to provide emotional support and smiles to young hospital patients. In addition to copies of David Saltzman’s New York Times best-seller The Jester Has Lost His Jingle and Jester & Pharley Dolls, the colorful vertical toy cart on wheels contains a TV, VCR and CD-tape-radio unit donated by Sony Medical Systems as part of its For the Kids™ program.
In 2004, the East Coast Project was created to raise funds for carts to be placed in area hospitals. This is the second cart donated as part of the East Coast Project. “This has been such a wonderful community effort for such a great cause,” says Milligan who did many speaking engagements, made animal balloons for donations and many other activities to raise the necessary funds for the Smile Cart.
“The Smile Carts and Jester & Pharley Dolls and books have such a positive impact on children dealing with a serious illness that we are delighted to have one for The Children’s Hospital,” says Meg Fisher, MD, Medical Director of The Children’s Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center. “Not only will the Smile Cart offer entertainment and laughter, but also a sense of comfort to our children.”
“Being able to give copies of The Jester Has Lost His Jingle book and doll to patients to take home also means that they will always be able to turn to The Jester & Pharley whenever they need to rediscover their smiles,” says Milligan, of Jackson, NJ.
“This Smile Cart is very special, for it represents a community-wide effort to provide this useful activity center to a local hospital,” says Barbara Saltzman, mother of the late author and executive director of the non-profit Jester & Pharley Phund. “It’s an absolutely remarkable achievement and shows what a difference each individual can make in their own community. The Jester & Pharley bring immeasurable emotional support to ill children, and the fact that Meg and others worked so hard to help children battling cancer is testimony to what people can do when they set their minds to it.”
The Jester & Pharley Smile Carts are inspired by the charming characters from the award-winning book written and illustrated by Yale graduate David Saltzman before his death from Hodgkin’s disease in 1990 at age 22.
For more information about The Children’s Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center, please call 1-888-724-7123.
CONTACT:
Carrie Cristello
Director, Public Relations
Barnabas Health
Southern Region
732-923-6552
ccristello@barnabashealth.org
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