Elephant rides and face painting greeted Bellingham families the weekend of Friday, April 16, to Sunday, April 18, at the Nile Shrine Circus held at the Bellingham Sportsplex.
The circus, which is a nationwide event, raises funds to support Shriners Hospitals for Children. These hospitals operate solely on donation, no payment is necessary for treatment.
In the current economic recession, Bellingham families are still willing to bring their children to a circus for a worthy cause. About 3,000 tickets were sold for the seven performances, said circus Chairman Chuck Cook.
The circus earned about $15,000 in Bellingham, Cook said.
The Nile Shrine circus travels to roughly 120 cities every year, but this was its first trip to Bellingham. Cheyla Petravich, office manager of the Sportsplex, said that she received four to five calls about the circus every day the week before it arrived.
Before the three-ring circus began, boys and girls could get their face painted or go down a giant inflatable slide for $5, or ride an elephant or pony for $8.
The circus began with a performer riding a motorcycle on a suspended wire with two female acrobats hanging below him.
Olivia Coppinger, 5, said she liked the comedic performer called Mr. Otto the best. He did tricks on a diving board before jumping onto a trampoline, which he pretended was a swimming pool.
A three-person group called The Flying Wallendas did high wire tricks including riding a bike across a tightrope. Their youngest member, Briana Phelps, is 11 years old, making her the youngest professional high wire girl in the world.
Meimei Findley, 8, said her favorite part was when Royal Bengal and Siberian tigers performed by jumping through hoops and around barriers.
Three performing elephants finished out the show to many gasps of delight from the younger members of the audience.
Circus "gets in your blood"
The troupe that performed in Bellingham last weekend is called Circus Spectacular. Timothy Tegge, ringmaster of the troupe, said that the troupe primarily performs in Shrine circuses.
Circus Spectacular is based in Florida, Tegge said. Tegge has been performing in circuses since he was 3 years old and said that Circus Spectacular is one of the best companies he has ever worked for.
Dressed in a tuxedo with a pink shirt, red bowtie, and green glittery eye shadow, Tegge said he loves performing in circuses.
“It gets in your blood—you either love it or you hate it,” he said.
Shriners support unhealthy children
The circus was sponsored by the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, commonly known as The Shriners. They began hosting circuses in 1906 and have clubs all around the nation.
The Shriners own and support 22 children’s hospitals, according to Bill Barquist, Director of the Northwest Shrine Club. The hospitals are spread out over the continental U.S., plus one each in Montreal, Mexico City, and Honolulu, Barquist said.
Treatment in the hospitals is completely free. Patients may donate if they can and wish to.
It costs $22 million per day to run the hospital system, Barquist said. The Shriners host many annual fundraisers to support the hospitals including a California concert series, and a national college football game, according to the Shriners Hospitals for Children’s website.
With so many Americans without healthcare, any donations to the hospitals will help them continue to provide free healthcare for children. Barquist, who was a Shrine patient for 14 years as a child, said he credits the hospitals for his quality of life.
"I would never have been able to walk without the Shrine,” Barquist said.
Many members from Bellingham’s chapter of the Nile Shrine attended the circus and gave away two bicycles, one to a girl and one to a boy. Every child from ages 5 to 12 was eligible to win a bicycle.
Colby Coppinger, a 7-year-old Bellingham resident, said his favorite part of the circus was when he won the orange boy’s bike. He named his bike “Flamey.”
Sportsplex offers activities for locals
The venue for the circus, the Bellingham Sportsplex, is located at 1225 Civic Field Way and is a local attraction for sports and activities. The Sportsplex offers public ice-skating and indoor soccer courts, as well as figure skating and hockey lessons, and supports an adult indoor soccer league.
Indoor soccer was shut down while the circus performed, but the Sportsplex kept the ice-skating rink open for its normal schedule, said Cheyla Petravich, office manager of the Sportsplex.
The Sportsplex normally keeps the skating rink open when events take place, said Petravich.
To learn more or donate to Shriner’s Hospitals for Children, visit http://www.shrinershq.org/Hospitals/Main/ or call 1-800-241-GIFT.
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