I am looking for a clown/s

We have our special children's picnic coming up and NEED clown/s. Does anyone know of a clown that can work on a weekday and may even donate their time to the cause?
We have been offered the services of animal balloon makers at $50/hour ! For the two for the two hours = $200 !
Now that will buy heaps of food !
I can only imagine how many balloons they will be able to make, we have 600 to 1000 special children, I doubt they will all get one, or even get it home.

Someone willing to dress up in [)] crazy clothes [)] and do silly things is all we need. Only for 2 to 3 hours. The feel good feeling is worth the efforts alone.

I'll ask all the girls at work tomorrow - most have young children, so they may have heard of someone, or know someone who would like to be involved.

What's the occasion/cause? Just out of curiosity

This may be sound odd, but E and a few of her classmates dislike clowns, in the traditional sense... and she has never liked them.

Any chance of a fairy instead?

And if that doesn't work, Tigger has a nylon "do" that she wears to field days (seen the photo), perhaps its timely for another airing?

Hahahaha Swaggie, you offering to wear it? Seriously though, we can only use the costume when we are doing educational appearances for our programme, more than likely scare the bejesus out of spoooks kids and not very amusing unless there is a funny person with it - which goes back to spoooks need for a clown .

Having said that, I was once, while wearing it for a photo shoot up Mt Vic in Wellington, mobbed by a busload of special needs adults who all wanted a hug []. Was lucky to get out of it in one piece [}]

The occasion/ cause is a picnic a few of us organise every year, must be 15 years by now. It is for all special needs children, no matter their special needs, can be learning (dare I use the word) disabled right through to completely dependant on a caregiver.
Funds are harder to raise and donations are, well almost, sadly a thing of the past.
We need every cent we can beg, steal or borrow and need to use it wisely. $50/hour (per person!) for someone to blow up balloons could get us a lot of foodstuffs.
Which leads me to another job on our list here ....
.... we offered to scour the supermarkets in the period leading up to the picnic for the best deals we could find for the feast we provide free for the children, buy the goods and store them until needed. Seemed an easy job at the time :confused:
The picnic is next month and I have not been near a supermarket for months [:0] .

We are fortunate enough that we have McDonald's travelling show entertain our kids each year, now we are basing our date on when they are available as it is so important to the kids. We used to have a train but ARC decided to make all parks "green" and Long Bay no longer has the drawcard of the train, I doubt the kids will understand when they see it is gone, it was such a huge part of their day .... and also helped us to keep them occupied.
Which brings me back to the NEED for clowns or entertainers.....free if possible.
One year we paid two clowns about $200 each, all they did was stand together, gossip and make balloon figures. They could have seperated and spread the entertainment! [:0]

We have a class from a local intermediate school assist us in distributing the food and attempting to clean up (the parks have a strict No Rubbish policy, then again. so do I) and a local college sends us a few older students to assist. One year we had a group of clowns from a drama class, they were awesome. I believe it does the helping student good to see the special children and help them, makes them appreciate what they are and have. I know it does me

Tigger, we would love you to dress up in your outfit........ thank you so much for offering .
Swaggie, I think we are having a Fairy, she comes with a Scarecrow, and we do get value for our money from them.

Soooooooooo....... sorry you asked???
I would appreciate any suggestions to make the day go smooth and keep the children entertained. Plus, any floating clowns, could you send my way............

As person in charge of drama club wardrobe, we have a few clown costumes you are welcome to look at for a very very small donation.
$5-10 bucks for as many as you want. They aren't great professional ones but are used a lot for different things. Email me and let me know. You just need to find people to wear them. If they were mine I wouldn't charge you, but as I do it for the club have to charge, so will knock off the bond etc.

Whereabouts is it held, spoook? And when is it?

Another thought - we've used teacher training college students before for shows etc, they are great with the kids, worth approaching?

Spoook, Don't know their contact details but you could try 'Circus Kumarani' (sp?) based in Dargaville. They perform circus tricks, juggling clown stuff etc and most of the performers are 'special needs' kids and young adults. Haven't got a Northland directory to hand but the Dargaville information centre should have some info on them.

Good old google!!!
www.circuskumarani.co.nz/new/

tigger;142371 wrote: Hahahaha Swaggie, you offering to wear it? Seriously though, we can only use the costume when we are doing educational appearances for our programme, more than likely scare the bejesus out of spoooks kids and not very amusing unless there is a funny person with it - which goes back to spoooks need for a clown .

Having said that, I was once, while wearing it for a photo shoot up Mt Vic in Wellington, mobbed by a busload of special needs adults who all wanted a hug []. Was lucky to get out of it in one piece [}]

Aww, what a gorgeous story, Tigger! Warmed my heart, it did!:cool:[^]

I might add that it was blowing a gale up Mt Vic that day, and I almost ended up demonstrating wind-spread weeds and achieving lift-off [:0] the things we do [}]

tigger;142505 wrote: I might add that it was blowing a gale up Mt Vic that day, and I almost ended up demonstrating wind-spread weeds and achieving lift-off [:0] the things we do [}]

LOL, I can just picture it

Before we had kids, and were still living in Auckland, I was a volunteer for Special Olympics. I loved it, especially the swimming events. All the participants when they finished their race would get out of the pool and give you a huge hug, even though they didn't know you from a bar of soap.[^] We were all a tad soggy by the end of the day's event[xx(], but is was soooooo worth it to see and experience their joy and sense of achievement [^]. What I loved most was these kids didn't care where they were placed, the most important thing to them was the fact that they took part.

Thanks for the link Betenoir, they look justy what we need but...... it is a long drive to Long Bay.
I have contacted them and hopefully they will be abale to help us somehow. Will ring them later today to follow up.
Fingers crossed.

When is it exactly Spoook????. not that I would ever make a good clown, I cant juggle

I was a clown in a production once.... I used to belong to a drama club - can you tell Spoook... being as dramatic as I am!!!

Perhaps try calling a few drama clubs - I know there is one in West Auckland and one called Carousel or something on the Shore I think...? Might be worth a shot... for costumes, or willing drama students?

I'd love to help, but as you know have my own special needs kids to tend to most days at the farm!

If you get stuck though - give me a shout!

Sundays