One of the highlights each year for my 7th and 8th grade juggling team is our service at River View Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Augusta, Maine. It is a highlight for a few reasons. First of all, the hospital chaplain James Wethersbee, is a good friend of mine, and by extension, a friend of the school. Each year he visits us, alternating years between speaks about mental health or the Martin Luther King holiday. He loves teens, and interacts so well with them.
This show is also a highlight because we perform in a gym, so there is plenty of space and height to juggle in. Finally, the audience is always appreciative. Quite frankly, not many people visit there, and to be inundated by 21 kids is a big event.
The school van was not handling well on the highway on our way there, so I stopped and called James asking if we could have a late start. The show was postponed 30 minutes, which allowed us to get off of the interstate and take back roads to Augusta. At 50 mph, the van handled a lot better.
When we finally arrived, the kids set up quickly, and we were ready to go at 10:30. The audience, which included a dozen or more nursing students from a local college- was with us from the start. We opened with our partner routine to Geoff Moore's "Friend Like You". Abbee and JK went into a full split as they half juggled clubs, Sebastien and JK did a great job stealing clubs, Adam and Elijah were flawless passing diabolos. The rest of the show was just as strong. Elijah was funny in both "Mechanical Friend" and as the older son in "Prodigal Juggler". Cailyn, swooning over the prodigal son the during this same routine was equally hysterical.
Due to the nature of some of the patients, we were not able to do machetes, but the individual juggling routine was terrific. Rachel juggling basketballs wowed everyone, and when the whole team threw fruit at Emilee as she wrapped up the routine, the audience collectively broke into loud laughter.
The highlight of highlights, though, was when they performed "Beautiful, Scandalous Night". One by one, Caleb (playing Jesus) called kids up to the cross. The kids carry banners with labels such as "Fear", "Shame" and "Sin". They hang them on the cross, bow in prayer, then rise up with clubs and make a line of jugglers. James told us afterwards that many of the staff in the audience were moved to tears by this. I love it when the Holy Spirit moves spontaneously like this.
After loading up our props, we headed to a local park for a picnic lunch, then returned to school just in time for dismissal. That's the kind of school day teachers and students can both agree was a good time.