August 14, 2007, Columbus
OH
 At
a noontime ceremony at Columbus State Community
College
(CSCC), Corinne
Cosseron, founder of
L'ecole Francais du Rire
et Bien Etre (The French Laughter
School and Well Being) presented psychologist
Steve Wilson with the prestigious 2007 Rire
d'Or (Golden Laughter) award. VIPs on hand for
the event included Dr. Valeriana Moeller,
president of CSCC, Sandra Stephenson,
Director of the Ohio Department of Mental Health,
Lenore Schneiderman, Chairman of the CSCC Human
Services Programs, and Frances Strickland,
First Lady of Ohio.
Ms. Strickland presented a gubernatorial
proclamation declaring August 14, 2007 as
Steve Wilson International Laughter Appreciation Day
throughout Ohio. Two proclamations from Mayor
Michael Coleman commended Wilson for his
dedicated efforts in our community, and recognized
the date as Laughter Day in Columbus.
Given
annually by
The French School
since 2002, the
Golden Laughter award goes to an individual
who has made an outstanding worldwide contribution
to promote the importance of laughter and humor for
health and a better life.
Traditionally, the award is presented in Paris,
accompanied by Biggest Burst of Laughter,
laughter en masse, during World Laughter
Day (first Sunday of May). At his request,
the French delegation travelled to Columbus, home of
Wilson’s World Laughter Tour project,
and led the assembled well-wishers in the first USA
Big Burst of Laughter, complete with peals of
laughter and joyful affirmations.
Wilson
expressed his gratitude for the recognition,
accepting it, he said,
“on behalf
of
the 4,000 people who are already trained in our
therapeutic laughter method, as well as the
countless tens of thousands around the world whose
lives have been made better by embracing the
positive power of laughter.”
“The
psychology of humor and laughter became a
fascination for me in 1984, opening an unexpected
career path.” Following a lecture tour in India
where he discovered ancient laughter practices, he
told the crowd at CSCC, “I founded the World
Laughter Tour in 1998, as a project to develop the
innovative adjunctive intervention of laughter
therapy, and to promote laughter-without-jokes as a
way to lead the world to health, happiness, and
peace.” He then enumerated for the group his
six-part program, Good-Hearted Living, “to
prevent hardening of the attitudes.”
In a
typical display of his quick wit, as he held
high the Rire d’Or statuette, a symbolic
laughing frog fabricated of recycled metals by
French artist Christian Wagner, Wilson wryly
observed, “You can’t get 4 ounces of moisturizer
cream through airport security these days, but
this 6 pound mass of metal made it through with
no trouble!”
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