Looking for a goal this year, Mileti arranged for the 25 jugglers to present three instructional programs to non-jugglers at am nearby school. Her students demonstrated their skills, taught lessons one-on-one and demonstrated how to make props by filling tennis balls and covering them with balloons. During the final session, the two groups presented a show together. 

Recently a half-dozen of the students taught juggling to other children in the community by acting as instructors for a local community college continuing education juggling course. 

The group now meets twice a month after school, but Mileti1ets her students juggle regularly in her classroom during recess and between classes. Students have organized an area where jugglers can practice without interrupting other classroom activities. "They teach each other and challenge each other constantly," said Mileti. "It has become part of what my room is."

In her ideal juggling world, she would have more money for transportation and cooperative programs with other schools, more involvement by community members as instructors of specialized skills. "Another dream would be for students to have the opportunity to attend the national convention in Pittsburgh, and to perform at a Cleveland Cavaliers halftime!" she said. Chuck Johnson's Cascade Youth Circus near Seattle, Wash., stresses parental support. Parents are invited to bi-monthly meetings where they discuss fundraising, the newsletter and grant proposals. "The more you get the parents involved the better chance you have to keep the kids," said Johnson. 

On one occasion parents organized a car wash to help the group buy a rolling globe. 

The circus arts group is just one aspect of Johnson's overall gymnastics program. More than 20 students from ages 6-19 practice a variety of circus skills for two hours twice a week, which costs their parents $35 per month. But the main focus is on juggling and tumbling. Students begin with structured warm up and tumbling, then practice their own routines. They must perfect a specified list of skills to make the "performance team." The 16-20 performers now on the rolls work on costuming, music and dance with Johnson's partner Jeri Habberstad, a movement specialist. Visiting jugglers Steve Mills and Ben Schoenberg have also help students work on their routines.

They perform about twice a month at grade schools, community festivals and day care centers, as well as an annual appearance at the Portland Juggling Festival. "Doing performances keeps kids more interested," said Johnson. "And it keeps parents more interested, too. 

Johnson says he has a core of students who have been wit the program as long as three years, and gets new recruits regularly after they see the troupe in school show performances. Another recruitment boon has been Johnson's establishment of a free before-school program for second and third graders at Shadow Lake Elementary School. 

He says he loses a lot of boys to other sports, and at one time the troupe was 75 percent girls. "All my best jugglers now are girls!" he noted.