A small town’s young residents have found purpose in this neighborhood mainstay for more than six decades
This Amateur Circus Provides Joy and Refuge to an Indiana Community
The clownery starts on the sidewalk, even before you enter the big top. Crowds who show up to see the Peru Amateur Circus in Peru, Indiana, known as America’s circus city, are greeted by merrymakers with silly jokes and swirly rainbow suckers. The smell of buttery popcorn fills the air; roaring trumpets fill the ears. Flossy cotton candy melts on the tongue. The circus is about to begin!
One of the delighted spectators is Debra Jo Myers, who nominated the circus as one of the Nicest Places in America. As a teenager, she used to fly through the air here with the greatest of ease. Now, she watches kiddie clowns spill into the arena, wearing curly rainbow wigs and big red shoes, trying hard to remember their choreography to the pump-up anthem blaring from the speakers. The resulting performance is funnier than anything a real clown could script.
Next, unicyclists pedal out, grasping one another’s shoulders to form long chorus lines that rotate around the circular ring like hands on a clock. Then, finally, comes the flying trapeze. Star aerialist Kevin Nord, a new graduate of Maconaquah High School, flips and twists, soaring high above the crowds before diving toward his friend’s outstretched hands. Caught! The 1,500 spectators erupt with applause. For Nord. For all 200 youth performers. For the 400 local volunteers who make the whole thing possible.
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The heart and soul of a city
Since 1960, crop after crop of Peru-area young people have taken their turn in the ring, often returning to help make the Peru Amateur Circus a bit better than it was the year before. “So many things have evolved,” says Myers, “and it’s all happened strictly through the efforts of volunteers and people who wanted it sustained.”
Peru Circus Center Arena, a big top–shaped building in the center of town, is just a block from the train tracks that bisect the little city of 11,000 residents. The railroad, which still runs today, hauling car parts and other freight across the state, is key to Peru’s sustained identity.
Back in the 19th and early 20th centuries, traveling acts like Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and the homegrown Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus turned Peru into their winter headquarters, taking advantage of the three train lines that converged here. Performers and menageries of hippos, elephants, zebras and camels called Peru home during the offseason. They, along with hundreds of railcars holding tents and poles, were ready to take off in any direction for the next cross-country run.
By World War II, the last circus car had rolled away, but many of the performers stayed. Today, Peru is home to generations of aerialists, clowns, stagehands and more. After all, the show must go on! “The circus is what makes us who we are, ” says Myers. “We wouldn’t be on the map without it.”
A refuge for kids
In the years that followed, schoolchildren put on amateur circus performances, tumbling across the courthouse lawn. By 1968, residents had raised enough money to convert an old lumberyard into the arena. “Once you get involved in the circus, you don’t really get uninvolved,” says Jason Yoo, who spent years on a trapeze. He still volunteers every year during City Circus Days, the weeklong festival in July when local circus kids perform the skills they’ve been working on since February.
For many, the mentorship and structure of daily practice can be an absolute lifeline. “There are plenty of kids who don’t have good situations at home, and they can go to the circus with people who genuinely care about their safety,” says Yoo. “They can genuinely excel in an environment like that.”
Myers knows the feeling well. When she was 11, her parents divorced, her father was arrested, her grandfather died, and she was moving houses and schools all in the same year.
“I’d leave school knowing I was coming home to chaos,” Myers says, “but I also knew as soon as I got home, I got to change my clothes and come to circus practice.” The kids sometimes come to the big top for Friday lock-ins. A late night spent chatting on the mats allows them to bond not just as performers, but as people.
Unwavering community support
Showtime! Nord, a perfect midwestern gentleman who is studying mechanical engineering at Purdue University, flies with the unencumbered lightness of someone with all the confidence in the world that the person on the opposing trapeze or swing is going to catch him. And why wouldn’t he? The small group of aerialists he spent the spring and summer training with, some of them classmates he’d never spoken with at school, are the people he trusts with everything.
Nord doesn’t struggle as much with preshow jitters before this year’s special 65th anniversary show, themed “Make It Shine” to commemorate the milestone. He comes out in his costume and sparkly white cape, ready to twist and tumble and flip. When he sticks the landing, the audience cheers. When he doesn’t, they cheer louder.
Why trust us
For more than 100 years, Reader’s Digest has been known for its heartwarming true stories and focus on community. In 2017, we launched the Nicest Places in America, an annual contest that honors kind, inspiring people making a difference in their hometowns. Readers send in nominations, and Reader’s Digest’s editorial team vets the entries and whittles them down with the help of a panel of judges. This year, the judges included Today’s Al Roker, Tuesdays with Morrie author Mitch Albom, author and podcast host Mónica Guzmán, former Reader’s Digest CEO Bonnie Kintzer, StoryCorps CEO Sandra Clark, and Greg Hudnall, a former associate school superintendent in Provo, Utah, which earned the title of Nicest Place in America in 2024. We are committed to producing high-quality content by writers with expertise and experience in their field in consultation with relevant, qualified experts. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
Originally Published in Reader's Digest
