Warning Strong Emotional Content / Cancer: The call came in like any other. They were having a fundraiser, so they had very little money to spend. The woman on the other end seemed disorganized. In my mind I was waiting for her to pause so I could interject how she should and shouldn’t be running a fundraiser. Then she said something that silenced even my mental dialogue. It was for a five year old girl who was dying. The parents had just found out that their daughter only had this summer to live. She then asked me what the cost would be for a tent. … “It’s free.” I replied. “What else do you need?” She protested weakly, but I insisted. We put together her small carnival and then I asked. How about a bounce house? This weekend, or any weekend this summer at their house? Over a series of emails she checked with the parents and a frozen bounce was delivered.
I received this email after all the events:
“Just wanted to shoot you a quick email and thank you again so much for your generosity this weekend for our fundraiser for CeCe and her family. We were able to raise over 20,000$ for the family and I can’t wait to tell them! This will allow them to spend time with their daughter and hopefully not worry so much about finances. I have been praising your name to everyone I know and encouraging them to support your business. All of your workers were wonderful, respectful and hard working. We will definitely use you all in the future and just wanted you to know how thankful we are for you!”
Every day our circus gets requests from charities. Some of them with more poignant needs than others. We cannot give to them all, but as circus performers part of our mission is to help save the world. Indeed this is all of our mission. As members of this planet, we have no higher calling than to help each other. Circus performers just get to wear awesome outfits while doing it.