POULSBO — Four clowns who are members of Poulsbo-based Caring Clowns International are headed to Peru Jan. 28 to Feb. 5, joining a team of craniofacial plastic surgeons who will be performing 20-25 surgeries in Lima.

This is Caring Clowns International’s 11th year joining craniofacial surgeons, anesthesiologists and scrub techs from the volunteer organization Komedyplast. Over the years, the doctors have completed more than 170 surgeries, including complex seven- to nine-hour surgeries for facial anomalies as well as cleft lip and cleft palate corrections.

Jed “Duffy” Selter, co-founder of Caring Clowns International (www.caringclownsinternational.org) and a member of the board of directors for Komedyplast (www.komedyplast.org), has clowned on nearly every trip. The doctors and clowns work hand-in-hand, according to Duffy.

Joining Duffy on this year’s Peru mission are Darla “Flora” Selter and Sheila “Sparkles” Walters, also from Poulsbo; and Andy “Sox” Bownds, a clown from the United Kingdom who now resides in Masaka Town, Uganda.

The clowns start early on screening day, when surgeons take a last look at the many hopeful children for potential surgeries. While families are waiting, the clowns entertain children and anxious parents. According to Caring Clowns, typically about 150-200 families come long distances from surrounding villages, the Amazon region, and the mountains in the hope of being selected for surgery. Many of the surgeries require full facial reconstruction.

“We are there when the children are prepped and wheeled into the operating room, holding a hand, patting a face, giving verbal ‘abrazos’ — hugs,” Duffy explains.

While the doctors are in surgery, the clowns entertain bed-to-bed throughout the 700-bed children’s hospital. They travel around central Lima and surrounding areas putting on one-hour shows for kids in orphanages, schools for the disabled, shanty towns and other hospitals. The clowns typically do three shows a day and hand out more than 1,000 red noses and 6,000 balloon animals.

“The clowns provide a key piece of patient care,” said Dr. Franklyn Cladis, one of the surgeons who has traveled to Peru to perform the much-needed surgeries. “The clowns entertain, comfort, and round-up the kiddies and the parents while the doctors poke, prod, and examine them. The Komedyplast medical mission wouldn’t be the same without them.”

Caring Clowns International is an all-volunteer, IRS tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organization comprised of clowns across the U.S. and several other countries. These clowns donate their time at more 80 events internationally and across the U.S. including orphanages, children’s and other hospitals, events for homeless children and adults, residences for abused women and children, schools for the disabled, retirement centers, VA hospitals, events for kids with down syndrome and disabilities, and children whose parents are in prisons and correctional facilities, community events and private parties.

Members have clowned and supported nonprofits operating in Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic, England, Ethiopia, France, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Peru, Russia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, Uganda, the Ukraine, Vietnam, and throughout the United States. Thousands of children and adults have received red clown noses, balloon sculptures, toys and stuffed animals.

The organization’s goal is to raise and donate $5 million to help needy children in the world. To date, Caring Clowns International has donated more than $270,000 in funds and equipment supporting many nonprofits in the U.S. and developing countries.