Jeannine Luby’s Donor-Advised Humor Fund Distributes Grant to Abington Library The Scranton Area Community Foundation recently awarded the Abington Community Library with a grant from the donor-advised Humor Therapy Fund developed in 2005 at the request of Jeannine Luby, who initiated the idea for this fund as part of her graduate work at Marywood University. The goal of the Fund is to help area nonprofits spread therapeutic humor and laughter to their clients, employees and/or community members. Luby continues to raise money for the Fund annually and advises on grant disbursement each year. The Abington Library received this year’s grant to fund their ‘Laughter Lab’ project to be held in April for teens in the Abington community. Teens will benefit from the opportunity to connect, express their humor and creativity, and experience stress relief from humor and laughter as they learn comedy improv from instructors at Scranton Improv and Comedy and stress-relieving laughter yoga that will be donated by Luby from her business Laugh to Live! Participants of the Laughter Lab will also receive humor toolkits and have an opportunity to show off their improv skills in a comedy performance that will be follow the April workshop at a later date. Past recipients of The Humor Therapy Fund grant include: Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeastern Pennsylvania, NAMI Northeast Region PA, Goodwill Industries of Northeast PA, Serving Seniors, Meals on Wheels, Volunteers in Medicine, and Laughing At My Nightmare. To donate to the Fund or learn about how your nonprofit can apply for next year’s grant, visit: https://safdn.org/the-humor-therapy-fund/.
Marywood University Graduate Student Creates Humor Therapy Fund As a graduate student at Marywood University working toward a Master of Arts degree in Communication Arts in 2005, Jeannine Luby worked with the Scranton Area Community Foundation (SAF) to create the Humor Therapy Fund…a donor-advised fund to disperse annual grants to area nonprofits with a plan to promote therapeutic laughter and humor in the community. The recipient of this year’s Humor Therapy Fund grant–the Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeastern Pennsylvania–used the funding to bring the Pittsburgh duo of Josh Verbanets and Gab Bonesso from Pittsburgh to perform their “Josh and Gab Show” in July. About 50 summer camp participants at the Club enjoyed the interactive musical comedy show. Kids danced to the original songs written and performed by Josh and Gab that highlighted common situations that kids encounter in which they can choose kindness and stand up to bullies. They also listened to Gab’s stories from childhood highlighting the importance of standing up for one another and shared their own ideas on kindness as well. Josh and Gab share their musical comedy program at school assemblies and community programs throughout Pennsylvania year-round. While in Scranton, Gab Bonesso took the opportunity to give back to the Fund that helped support her and Josh Verbanets. She presented Jeannine with a $100 check for the Humor Therapy Fund. The money donated came from a portion of the sales of her recent stand-up comedy album “Tragicomedian.” (For more information on Josh and Gab: https://www.joshandgab.com/ )
Jeannine Luby Presents Grant to Boys and Girls Clubs of NEPA The Humor Therapy Fund of the Scranton Area Foundation is a donor-advised fund that was initiated in 2006 by Jeannine Luby, owner of Laugh to Live, as part of a graduate project at Marywood University. The fund was created with the purpose of promoting therapeutic laughter and humor throughout the greater Scranton area, which Luby says is needed now more than ever. Each year a grant is dispersed to a local 501c3 nonprofit organization and this year that recipient is the Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeastern Pennsylvania who will use the funding to bring in the award-winning ‘Josh and Gab’ kindness and bullying-awareness musical comedy program that focuses on healthy choices, creativity, and community. Pictured in photo from left are Angel, Tricia Thomas, Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of Northeastern Pennsylvania; Jeannine Luby, owner of Laugh to Live & donor adviser of the Humor Therapy Fund of the Scranton Area Foundation, and Willow.
