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Spiritual Care volunteer had early calling to care

child with clown

Pat Leonard as "Patti Cake the Clown" at a fundraiser during the Moyer's Corners Firemen Field Days, circa 1985.


By Stephanie DeJoseph

How would you respond if your grandmother told you as child that your calling is “to always be there with the sick?”

For Pat Leonard, the mother of two boys, seven grandkids and seven great grandkids, those words marked a pivotal moment that shaped the course of her life. “I think my grandmother told me this to keep me off the streets,” she said.

Clergy Day 2012 004 Pat Leonard

Pat Leonard


Her first bedside vigil began when she was only seven years old, sitting with a sick neighbor. Since that time she comforted the sick and dying, including her husband.

Pat recalls how she was raised with a strong faith on Syracuse‘s North Side. At eight years old she remembers climbing to the choir loft of The Franciscan Church of the Assumption, where the spires were a remarkable 175-foot high. “I felt like I was closer to God up there,” she said.

“I volunteered my whole life”— in parades, for the Sneaker Fund (an organization that provides sneakers to kids in burn units) and as a church Eucharistic minister. She became “Patti Cake” the clown as a young adult to raise money for children. She continued to make people happy in this role for many years. “My clown suit was specially kept and only worn when raising money for sick kids,” she said.

Through the years she worked on many fundraising projects, charging as little as $25 to perform at kids' birthday parties. In her last year as president of two clown units, she and her cohort raised $5,000 that was divided among several children‘s charities.

She originally came to Upstate to volunteer in the cancer unit, until she met the Rev. Jerry Shave (after whom Upstate‘s annual Clergy Day is named.) He asked Leonard to think about volunteering with Spiritual Care.

For the past 10 years she has been offering comfort through spiritual ministry at the bedside. With a warm smile she offered: “I guess I found a home here.”
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