Johnson & Johnson and the Society for the Arts In Healthcare
Provide Support for Medical Missions For Children's Giggles Theater
Funding will support performing artists at Medical Missions for Children's new theater at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital
Paterson, New Jersey, November 29, 2004 - Medical Missions for Children (MMC), a non-profit organization dedicated to elevating the care of catastrophically ill children in underserved U.S. and international communities, today announced that it has received financial assistance from Johnson & Johnson / Society for the Arts in Healthcare Partnership to Promote Arts and Healing Grant Program. These funds will be utilized to secure performing artists for the children's theater.
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) working in conjunction with the Society for the Arts in Healthcare (SAH), seeks to promote the use of the arts to enhance the healthcare experience for patients, their families, and caregivers.
Medical Missions for Children, in partnership with St. Joseph's Children's Hospital, has developed a unique healing experience for its young patients. Giggles Children's Theater, a 70-seat theater also able to accommodate children in wheelchairs and beds, and located within St. Joseph's Children's Hospital, brings local and regional performing artists directly to pediatric patients - through weekly performances and hands-on activities. Music, drama, puppetry, dance, storytellers, and live, interactive "video field trips" break the monotony and bring brightness to these sick children.
Performances take place weekly - to both a live audience, and for non-ambulatory patients, broadcast via the hospital's closed circuit television system. The theater is equipped with a motorized curtain, an upright piano, sound and lighting systems as well as state of the art recording equipment. Ultimately, since the theater features the latest telecommunications technology - including the use of Polycom videoconferencing units and a global satellite system - Medical Missions for Children and St. Joseph's Children's Hospital will transmit around the world to children's hospitals in developing countries.
In addition to St. Joseph's Children's Hospital, Medical Missions for Children is partnering with groups such as Polycom, Inc. - the leading videoconferencing technology supplier in the United States. Polycom's videoconferencing technology supports live, interactive "video field trips" to such places as the Cincinnati Zoo, NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
"We are dedicated to bringing a wide variety of fun, interesting and educational entertainment to St. Joseph's Children's Hospital's pediatric patients and their families," says Becky Angelo, executive director, Giggles Theater. "Through support from J&J and the Society for the Arts in Healthcare we are able attract the highest quality artists and thus provide a creative and stimulating environment each week. We thank these groups for their interest in Giggles Theater at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital."
About Medical Missions for Children
Medical Missions for Children (MMC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to elevating the care of catastrophically ill children in underserved U.S. and international communities. MMC created and manages its programs through the organization's Global Telemedicine and Teaching Network™ (GTTN) - an interactive, satellite and Internet-based communications platform. The Global Telemedicine & Teaching Network supports the real-time treatment of remote, critically ill children, and through a fully FCC licensed broadcast station, WMMC, broadcasts worldwide an extensive program of continuing medical education. Medical Missions for Children is headquartered at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Paterson, NJ. Visit for additional information.
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