"I'll never forget it," said Mike Pluth. "It makes me want to go farther with my juggling. I haven't done any solo performances yet, but I'm thinking about it." Juggler Kim Trebon added, "My girlfriends were kind of jealous about us going to Wash­ington, so some of them are learning now. I want to keep juggling. Right now I want to do torches and can juggle them 50 times. But Mike wants me to get better before he'll light them."

 

The Corridor Alternative School juggling program is ten years old. Juggling is one of many afternoon electives in the public "magnet" school, which emphasizes performing arts. Garling teaches juggling as an elective for all students. But the juggling performance program involves 75 students who practice occasionally after school. They regularly perform locally for civic clubs and charity groups, and have marched in the Eugene Celebration parade, and appeared at EXPO in Vancouver, with the Flying Karamazov Brothers, and have put on shows to raise money for organizations such as the Lane County Relief Nursery, United Way and Easter Seals. The school has been recognized by the State of Oregon and it received a U.S. Department of Education award in 1985-86 for educational excellence.

 

The Corridor juggling program was founded by former teacher Ken Coleman, who was killed in a car accident five years ago. Coleman went to the White House to receive the Department of Education award, and said at the time he'd like to bring his jugglers back there to perform. This year's Corridor Jugglers, who were just in kindergarten when Coleman died, dedicated their Washington trip to his memory.

 

Garling still isn't satisfied that Coleman's wish had been fulfilled, however. He said, "I want to juggle in the White House. We got close by juggling in the parade and in the Capitol Building, but didn't get to the White House itself. We sent an autographed club to the Gores and Clintons, and are sending Clinton a picture of kids the kids to autograph, along with a note that we'd like to come to the White House because that was Coleman's dream."

 

Coleman's mother, who lives in New Jersey, was told of the performance, and sent congratulatory champagne and watched the jugglers on TV.

 

More than 500 groups from across the nation requested spots in the inaugural parade, and Garling submitted his request through Oregon congressman Peter DeFazio. The Corridor Jugglers were the only group from Oregon selected to appear in the parade. But selection was the easy part. The hard part was figuring out logistics to transport 13 jugglers and their supporters across country and to raise $12,000 to cover their expenses.

 

Garling broadcast an appeal for support, and several juggling clubs and prop manu­facturers were among those responding with cash. Nike, which is headquartered in Oregon, gave each juggler a new pair of shoes and a warmup bag.

 

The group flew into Washington on Sunday night of inauguration week. On Monday they visited the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum, but many jugglers said the highlight of the day was an extended shopping stop at The Juggling Capitol, where co-proprietor Neil Stammer gave them some lessons with balls and devil stick. On Tuesday they did a 20-minute show in the Longworth Senate Office Building Mo Udall Room for the Oregon governor, congressional delegation and lobbyists. Each juggler introduced himself or herself, performed a few individual tricks, and then did passing routines. That evening they were invited to a party at Nike's East Coast headquarters, where they met many dignitaries, drank all the soda pop they could stand and got pictures of Bo Jackson.

 

Tuesday night they got the message that the CBS Morning Show wanted to feature them the next day. After an anxious night's sleep, they caught the metro to the Pentagon parking lot staging area, arriving just minutes before show time. The CBS crew found them and interviewed Garling while the jugglers performed in the background. Then it was wait, wait, wait.

 

For about four hours they waited in the parking lot, killing time by entertaining the high school bands waiting with them. Finally they were loaded onto buses and moved close to Pennsylvania Avenue where they waited again for the parade to start. When they finally got the call to step out into the street, the time passed quickly and the parade was quickly over. They finally got back to the hotel at 5:45 p.m., arm­weary and excited after a long day's juggle in the national spotlight.

 

"What do you do for an encore?" Garling was asked. He replied that he had his sights set high. "Maybe Disneyland, a pro baseball game, a half­time for the Portland Trail Blazers, the Rose Bowl... "I don't know. But I still won't be satisfied until we get to the White House."