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Laughter for Health and Happiness Business, School & Community Programs
State & National Conferences Parties for All Ages
Professional Background Toot the Person

Welcome! This website for Toot the Clown features her clowning for state and national conferences, schools, business and community organizations, programs on "Laughter for Health" and parties for all ages from youth to seniors.

A second website focuses on Toot's Christian clowning. To go to that website please click here..

Laughter for Health and Happiness

Laughter is good for your body, your emotions and your Spirit. Plus it is non-fattening.

Medical researchers have confirmed that 15 minutes of laughter each day can help your blood vessels work more efficiently.

Toot's presentations to adults and youth combine clown humor and fun, music, illusion, balloons and audience interactions. Her programs on "Laughter for Health" and "Let Laughter Lighten the Load" have been featured as keynote addresses.  Her school presentations support curriculum such as "The Land of Make Believe."

State Conferences

  • Lighten the Load with Laughter (Pennsylvania Farm Bureau- Hershey Convention Center )

  • Letting Laughter Lighten the Load" (Annual Joint Chaplains Conference)

  • Humor Transforms (State YWCA Pennsylvania Federation of Retired Persons)

  • Energizing Humor: The Amazing Power of Laughter" (Pennsylvania Association of Senior Centers)

National Conferences

Toot has taught and clowned at conferences including Clown Camp at the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse in 2000 and 2003 and the Presbyterian Women Churchwide Gathering in Louisville, Kentucky in 2000, 2003 and 2006. Thanks to Photographer David P. Young for the accompanying pictures. 

Professional Background

Toot is the clown persona of Anita Thies of State College, PA. Anita holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Northwestern University and has worked in public relations for Northwestern University and Penn State University. She has been clowning professionally for more than 20 years in a variety of venues--for schools, businesses, arts festivals, and community organizations.

She became a clown for hospice and was privileged to have special friendships with several children and their families. She began visiting hospitals and nursing homes and doing a variety of clown programs in churches. In 2003, she co-authored The Joyful Journey of Hospital Clowning: Making a Difference with Love and Laughter (Lighthearted Press) which is being used in the training program of the Bumper T Caring Clowns in the Philadelphia, PA area and is carried by a number of clown suppliers.

She is a member of the World Clown Association and Clowns of America International. She helped to found the Happy Valley Alley of the World Clown Association, and served as its President in 2001 and 2006. From 2002-2005, she served as President and newsletter editor of the national Creative Ministries Organization Cheer Leaders for Christ. Today she does a variety of clowning and humor programs for businesses, schools, hospitals, health care and community organizations.

Business, School and Community Programs

Toot's business and community clowning has ranged from a "medieval" appearance at the Madrigal Dinners in State College in 2004 to more traditional clowning for the State College Downtown Improvement District and the Penn State Alumni Association's Ice Cream Social. After keynoting a state conference for the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau in Hershey in 2004, Toot has brought laughter to regional programs throughout 2005 and 2006 including one sponsored by Penn State's Cooperative Extension in Scranton, PA.

 

In community celebrations, Toot entertained in the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Washington, D.C. with her Irish "Eyes" (above right)  and joined the Bellefonte Brass Band at People's Choice Festival in 2004 in a piece for brass and kazoos.

 

In 2006, Toot entertained students at the Lemont Elementary School (pictured below), Easterly Parkway Elementary School and Penns Valley School. Toot has a special place in her heart for nursing home residents since Anita's mother spent several years in a nursing home. Anita is writing a book on Nursing Home Clowning due for publication in April 2007. She has done programs at Epworth Manor Nursing Home in Tyrone and the Brookline Home in State College.

Parties For all Ages

Laughter is good for "children" of all ages. Toot has clowned for all ages ranging from pre-schools to nursing homes. As a past teacher's aide at Park Forest Day Nursery, she knows how to approach young children. In her birthday parties, the birthday honoree is the "star" of the show. (Thanks to the family of Violet Weeden for these pictures at her 90th birthday)

Toot the Person

For more details on Toot's schedule, feel free to contact:

Anita Thies
761 Cornwall Rd.
State College, PA 16803
(814) 237-9466

e-mail:

"Kids laugh on average 400 times a day. Adults laugh on average 16 times a day.

We lose 384 laughs a day in a process I call adulteration."--Michelli