Funds Help Renovate Hospital Guest House, Hospice Rooms
More than 1,000 area residents laughed their way through a March 8 performance by Chicago’s legendary comedy troupe, The Second City, and helped raise more than $58,000 to benefit the Appleton Medical Center and Community Hospice Foundations.
“Laughter is the Best Medicine: The Laughing Matters Tour” featured some of Second City’s best sketches, songs, and improvisations from the group’s 45-year history. The funds raised from the event at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center were used to make improvements to Appleton Medical Center’s Guest House and the rooms at Cherry Meadows Hospice.
This was the fourth year for “Laughter is the Best Medicine” and plans are already underway for next year’s event, said Michelle Bauer, who co-chaired the event with Kim Beiser.
“The response this year was fantastic. We raised $10,000 more than we did last year and we had a lot of great sponsors,” she said. “Laughter is very healing and therapeutic, which makes this such a great event.”
Two sponsors increased their sponsorship and the event had 13 new sponsors, Bauer said.
WIXX and WLUK Fox 11 served as the media partners and JP Graphics of Appleton was the event’s print sponsor.
Founded in 1959, The Second City has become the premier training ground for the comedy worlds best and brightest. The troupe’s alumni includes the following top names in comedy: Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Alan Arkin, Joan Rivers, Robert Klein, Peter Boyle, Harold Ramis, John Belushi, Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, George Wendt, Martin Short, John Candy, Bonnie Hunt, Tim Meadows, Chris Farley, Mike Myers, Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Horatio Sanz, Ryan Stiles and countless others.
ThedaCare (www.thedacare.org) is a community health system consisting of five hospitals: Appleton Medical Center, Theda Clark Medical Center, New London Family Medical Center, Shawano Medical Center, and Riverside Medical Center in Waupaca. ThedaCare also includes ThedaCare Physicians, ThedaCare Behavioral Health, ThedaCare At Work, and ThedaCare At Home. ThedaCare is the largest employer in Northeast Wisconsin with more than 6,175 employees. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
