40,000 children will wake up in a hospital bed in Greater Boston this year. Some will be there for life-saving treatment; many will be in pain; almost all will be lonely and hoping to go home soon; all will be scared. Jeannie Lindheim’s Hospital Clown Troupe will visit more than 2,500 of them and their families this year, to help them feel a little better, a little stronger, and most importantly, less frightened and more confident. Inspired by a famous clown, Patch Adams, Jeannie Lindheim founded her own clown troupe in 1997. Today she has built it up to 22 volunteer clowns, who have visited more than 21,000 sick kids since the organization started. Administrators at Mass General Hospital for Children, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and The Franciscan Children’s Hospital have welcomed the clowns into their wards and their hearts. As one doctor says, “Sometimes what it takes to make a child in a hospital feel better doesn’t come in a bottle…Sometimes healing comes straight from the soul…that is why we value Jeannie Lindheim’s Hospital Clown Troupe.” Will you help send in the clowns?