If you don’t have an irrational fear of clowns – like me – then you should have fun at most circuses, and tonight, at Hunter “Patch” Adams‘ 65th birthday celebration at Fremont Studios (155 N. 35th St.) from 8 p.m. to midnight. Tickets can be bought online for $25. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Gesundheit Institute.
Adams, the clownish doctor cinematically channeled by Robin Williams in 1998, helped found Gesundheit, which began as a “free hospital” and expanded into an international organization with branches in Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington and clinics all over the world.
Closer to Fremont, Gesundheit Institute will be hosting a conference for Re-Designing Our Health Care System in Olympia.
The aim of this working conference is to seed designs of a variety of local projects that move the health care system away from the corporate-business context into models of compassion and service. Via speaker presentations and small working groups, Patch and his team of practitioners and teachers will show current innovations in health care system design, as well as teach concepts and designs that can be replicated back home.
“We believe that by ‘coming together’ for change, we can spark health care system change,” said Melanie Meltzer, development director for the Gesundheit! Institute.
Joining Adams at his birthday celebration: Country Joe McDonald (from Country Joe and the Fish) and Shana Morrison with Caledonia. You’re more than welcome to wear a clown nose to commemorate his birthday.