MMC’s Giggles Children’s Theater (Giggles) draws its curtains three times each week to bring the healing powers of laughter and entertainment to hospitalized children in the city of Paterson, NJ. Located at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital, Giggles creates an atmosphere of levity for sick children and their families, thereby stimulating the circulatory system, which in turn massages every organ in the body. Proven is that this type of physical and emotional stimulation directly impacts the recovery of every child – young and old.
Live performances are not limited to only those children well enough to visit the Giggles Theater. Each performance is broadcast live into the Hospital’s closed-circuit TV system so that no child is excluded due to sickness or incapacity. Each performance is also recorded so that it can be shared with the over 100 children’s hospitals around the world who also benefit from the charitable works of MMC, proving on a daily basis that “laughter is the best medicine”.
From the comfort of Giggles Theater, children are able to travel the globe on interactive virtual field trips.
Children at Giggles have been able to swim with sharks, visit zoos and museums, explore rainforests, and more!
From a child's perspective, Giggles is a very special place and provides a short escape from the fear and monotony that often coincides with a hospital stay. Today Giggles presentations are delivered via closed circuit television to the bedside of children too ill to come to the theater and are broadcast via satellite and internet 2 to other childrens hospitals. In april 2007 a second Giggles theater opened at The Childrens Inn located at the campus of the National Institutes of Health. If you are interested in learning more about Giggles Theater or if you have
a talent you would like to share, please call 973-754-4558 and ask for Lissa Scott or write an
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