#Volunteer Spotlight : Open Heart Magic - @OpenHeartMagic
I’ve always been fascinated by magic. As someone who is analytical, the chance to have my mind blown by an impossible trick was always a welcome distraction from my dominant left-brain.
After growing and stabilizing my companies, I knew that it was time to find an outlet for my desire to help. After searching for a new volunteer experience, I stumbled across Open Heart Magic.
It seemed almost too good to be true.
Founded in 2004, volunteer magicians are professionals from around Greater Chicago who had no background in magic but were interested in helping kids in hospitals. Through a 4-month intensive training program we learned magic and bedside manner, as well as the ins and outs of working in a hospital.
Because OHM’s Bedside Magic performances are personalized and interactive, I had the opportunity to work with kids of all ages, regardless of physical or developmental restrictions. I got the chance to perform for patients who are in for a one-time ER visit, as well as patients undergoing long-term treatment for conditions such as pediatric cancer, childhood diabetes, heart problems, and pediatric heart transplants.
One of the greatest benefits was also for the parents and siblings of these patients, who are experiencing the stress and uncertainty that illness brings.
After completing the training, I also went through an optional intensive training so that I could perform in isolation units.
These units had significant complexities especially when it came to doing magic in an outfit that looked like I was an extra in the movie Outbreak.
This responsibility was a great experience as these patients that have significant limits on visitors and must keep their rooms completely germ-free.
I spent hours every week at Lutheran General Hospital, where the staff was always incredibly welcoming and saw our team as an extension of their work.
But...why magic?
For kids undergoing medical treatment, magic has therapeutic value. According to research in education, social work, and psychology:
- Magic is a beneficial tool for gaining trust, decreasing tension, and establishing rapport when working with children and adolescents.
- Magic enhances patients’ cognitive functions, perception, neuromuscular and motivational skills.
- Magic is an innovative technique for reaching children who are scared, isolated and resistant to other forms of therapy.
- Magic is a means for utilizing the powerful benefits of humor and laughter both for the young patients and their siblings and families who are undergoing some of the most stressful moments of their lives.
- Hospital Magicians now reach out to kids in nine Chicago area hospitals, and OHM has since expanded to Cleveland and Ann Arbor.
Obviously, it’s also fun to have a card up your sleeve at parties and gatherings. I love practicing tricks for colleagues, interns, friends, family...whoever wants to suspend belief and feel like a child again.
But...there was nothing more rewarding that seeing smile magically appear on a kid’s face, and the awesome ability for magic to transport them out of the pain and anguish of a hospital stay and into a world of being a kid again...if only for a few minutes at a time.