07/08/2026
New Old Time Chautauqua Aqua Tour
how can I put a life changing experience into words.
It was truly incredible, walking in to Chautauqua the amount of kindness that I was greeted with was unmeasurable. We became family instantly, a family of Clowns.
Do you know what is a Chautauqua?
Chautauqua is a group of traveling artist. Who travel to rural communities to bring education, arts and service. Most importantly everything we offered was completely FREE.
We are the last Chautauqua in the world.
We brought workshops, parades, shows and service projects to 5 Islands in the Salish Sea, B.C, Canada in just under 3 weeks.
The hearts and minds we touched with our hard work was undeniable. Our show was to inspire the public to take care of the Salish Sea, to listen and learn from the indigenous people from each area and to envision a healthy, thriving new world.
We traveled by one bus, truck, van and trailor and at time 8 boats. We camped out on friends lands, community centers, baseball fields, anywhere 50 people could comfortably lay their heads. Our trailor carried our kitchen and we were provided 3 meals daily. The truck was full to the brim with our suitcases, circus gear, musical instruments, and tents. The bus carried most of us clowns from place to place or we would catch a ride from island to island by boat.
Marching a parade through a grocery store and seeing the look on people's faces will stay with me forever. The joy. The wonder.
The gratitude and privilege we had to help the indigenous communities on each island with yard work, gardening, wood chopping was so well recieved we went home with gifts of salmon and hand made cedar roses.
What can I say, it was more than I could dream of. Chautauqua is why I love the circus so much. To inspire others and of course the open heart acceptance for all to join our sparkle parade.
Waking up to the sounds of trumpets, bells and whistles is putting my phones ringtone to shame.
The part that blew me away every time was the act that no one saw. After the lights and cameras went away; packing it up and unpacking it all again. And again. And again. And again.
I count down the days to do it all again.
