Fourth of July Story
By Carley Lake

Paul Miller spent his Fourth of July balancing a shopping cart on his chin.

Miller, 32, is director of Chicago Youth Circus' CircEsteem. He led his group of 17 jugglers, clowns and stilt-walkers down Central Street in Evanston's 86th annual Fourth of July parade.

“I do this for the kids,” Miller said, as he led his circus students in the parade for the second year.

A former Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus clown, Miller founded CircEsteem to help Chicago kids build self-esteem through circus arts. Kids learn clowning, juggling, stilt-walking, ball-walking, uni-cycling and acrobatics. The program started six years ago.

More than 138 diverse groups were represented in the Evanston parade. Among the participating groups were the Daughters of the American Revolution, a women's organization preserving patriotism; the South Shore Drill Team, a youth group aimed at promoting education and discouraging gang violence; and the Lawndale Lawnmowers Precision Drill and Mulching Brigade, which pushed its mowers down Central Street. But CircEsteem had something different: a clown.

Miller loves goofing around with the kids. The ringleader wore tie-dye knee socks, huge blue clown shoes and a cherry red nose. During a pause in the parade, he picked up a shopping cart and balanced the handlebar on his chin as the parade audience clapped and shouted.

“I got my circus kids $100,000 of food with this trick,” Miller said. Four years ago, Miller walked into a Whole Foods and did the balancing trick. Since then, CircEsteem has been given three days of free food a week.

The most experienced CircEsteem students participated in the parade. Rose Heltzer, 12, has been performing with the group for four years. Her favorite part of the parade is performing for the judges, she said.

CircEsteem not only unites Chicago youth through circus performing, but also people from all over the world, Miller said.

Dominic Beck, 20, traveled from Germany to perform with CircEsteem during the parade. Beck is part of a youth service program, Pimparello, which will be spending the summer performing with Miller's program for the International Youth Circus Exchange.

Beck juggled blue, red, green and yellow juggling clubs with the CircEsteem kids during his first visit - and his second day - in the United States.

“The day is all excitement,” Beck said.

For CircEsteem participants, the parade experience was about more than juggling and doing backflips. The high school students in the parade each earned $100 for taking part, Miller said.

To encourage participating students to also do well academically, Miller started a circus-themed scholarship just for CircEsteem kids. The program puts on shows and 10 percent of profit goes into the fund. It reached $20,000 this year, Miller said.

As Miller and his students prepared for the start the parade, he stressed that the program was all for the kids.

“The C in circus stands for confidence,” Miller said. “It's all about my kids performing new feats before an audience.”