Laughter is the best medicine, especially when it brings awareness to social issues in the community.

“Free to Laugh,” a national comedy concert tour that has raised nearly $400,000 for child sex trafficking survivors, will stop in Toledo this weekend.

Comedians Carlos Oscar, Daren Streblow and Bob Stromberg will do two shows at 5 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18, in The University of Toledo’s Nitschke Hall Auditorium. The show will raise money for the Daughter Project, a Toledo faith-based organization that offers healing services to girls and women who have been freed from sex traffickers.

Toledo is ranked fourth in the nation for sex trafficking with an estimated 1,800 people trafficked in Ohio at any given time.

“People think this happens in New York and Chicago, that it’s not a problem here, but it is,” said Jeff Wilbarger, director of the Daughter Project. “It’s a real issue. Trafficking takes place everywhere.”

Wilbarger, who is also a UT alumnus and a former UT mathematics faculty member, said that the comedians all have clean humor, making the show appropriately funny for all ages.

“We want it to be a family show,” he said. “There won’t be any crude jokes or foul language.”

Sponsors for the show, including Munn Wealth Management, The Andersons, Mannik Smith Group, Haven of Hope, The University of Toledo and Nova Faith Community, ensure that the event is entirely paid for so that 100 percent of the proceeds are donated to the Daughter Project, Wilbarger said.

Tickets cost $20 and can be purchased at Georgette’s Grounds & Gifts, located at 311 Conant St., Maumee, or online here.

For more information, visit thedaughterproject.org.

Media Coverage
Toledo Free Press (Oct. 17, 2014)