2025: News from PYCA
Another year (our 11th) is coming to a close! Phoenix Youth Circus Arts has been working with a record number of kids this year and 2025 has seen steady improvement in our services. So, it is time again to remind our friends what your help has allowed us to do this year, and what we hope to accomplish in the coming year.
We have an ambitious fundraising goal suitable for ambitious plans – you can be part of the team that makes it happen!
What our friends make possible:
Your donations allow us to maintain a “no one turned away for lack of funds” policy for our programs for which participant fees are collected. Each year, dozens of kids who can’t afford to participate otherwise take part in our classes.
Donations also make up the difference between what we can charge cash-strapped Arizona public schools and what it costs to bring circus arts to the kids – who then can participate at no cost to them. A hallmark of PYCA is a low student-to-coach ratio which is expensive, but it allows for maximum safety and personalized instruction.
In the summer, we offer scholarships to several dozen kids who get to have a really cool summer experience – again due to the generosity of our friends. In Phoenix, for those of you not from here, kids can’t just “go outside and play” in the summer so a great camp experience is priceless for them. Scholarship recipients routinely say circus camp is the highlight of their summer.
As our programs grow, so does our need for even more stilts, mats, unicycles, and juggling equipment, and storage space.
Our plans for 2026:
We would like to add an additional training day for our youth troupe without having to charge our families more. The troupe, twelve kids from age 11-17, is brand new this year. In 2025 it performed at the county fair, a senior citizen campus, and the Arizona State Fair. With more time, we know this program can become the centerpiece for youth circus in the city – both as an ambassador of the power of youth to the community, and an incentive for kids in all our classes to practice well and become ambassadors themselves someday.
We need to continue to fund our scholarship program – specifically our summer camps where the need is great. We would like to offer even more weeks of camp, and more scholarships in each week.
We want to renew our partnership with the Arizona Women’s Recovery Center. In 2023 and 2024 we did a well-received week of camp and other events with the children of the women in their program. In 2025 that partnership was on hold because of funding challenges at AWRC. If we can help close the funding shortfall ourselves, we can bring these families who are working hard to overcome their challenges more circus love.
We are hoping to partner with the Arizona Down Syndrome Network by holding a class and performance for their families. Circus arts are fully adaptable and engaging to folks with differing abilities – our motto has always been “everyone can join the circus!”.
In addition to these worthy projects, your donations help with the costs of doing business. While our overhead and administration costs are minimal,in 2026 we will face, yet again, an increase in the cost of insurance.
What is happening right now with circus arts thanks to you:
ACCLAIM Academy: We have a record number of kids (28) in our club – they will participate once again in the school’s annual performing art concert in January.
Julian School: Our program in the Roosevelt District is stronger in its second year – with 10 to15 kids attending each week. Their first performance will be at their arts showcase in December.
Clarendon School: was able to rescue their after-school programs that were subject to Department of Education cuts by dipping into their tax credit funds. It has a full roster of 25 kids – the club will participate in the Osborn District arts fundraiser in December.
School of Quintessence: A new Waldorf micro-school, “SoQ”, has us meeting with all three of their classes during the school day on Mondays. Unicycling and stilt-walking are favorites with many of the kids there.
Desert Marigold Waldorf School (“Circus Waldorkus”): is building back up. Classes are outdoors and have to wait until after fall break to avoid the worst of the Arizona heat. This is the program that predates PYCA and has been going strong for about 15 years, only the last five years as fully organized by PYCA. Did you know Waldorf Schools around the world usually have circus arts in one form or another because of the great benefits it provides kids?
Homeschool group: this class has been going for many years. Some of our long-time students in this group also have helped out at the youth troupe shows and started performing on their own with their juggling and stilt-walking.
The summer camps in Phoenix and Moab: Both were highly successful. The scholarship campaign at both made it easier to bring in kids that wouldn’t have been able to attend otherwise. All six weeks of camp sold out months before the camps began so we know we are filling a need in both communities.
Other special events: Outdoor fairs and school carnivals host our circus activities public participation areas. These help get PYCA out to the community and help recruit new people and schools.
What we are looking forward to:
We have another performance at the Herberger Theater coming up in January. We will return for shows at the Beatitude senior center and the Maricopa County Fair and Arizona State Fair. Each school program finishes with an end-of-year show that showcases the kids’ talents for the entire school community.
Thank you to the coaches!
Phoenix Youth Circus Arts only exists because of the wonderful coaches that instruct, spot, encourage, and sometimes consol our students. I still do a lot of the teaching, but the contributions of Dave Davis, Athena Pappas Davis, Kendra Foti, Katherine Hunter, Shukrani Mato, and Kyle Larson as our other regular coaches are invaluable. Coaching help also comes from Maya and Olivia Cabelli, Corinne Vivers, and Danielle Mahkee. New this year is the tech and publicity help from coach Melanie Webster.
We also want to thank:
- The administrators of the schools where we hold our classes. They have a lot on their plates and frequently joke that they already have a “circus” to contend with, even before inviting a real circus class into their schools.
- Francesco Caban at Aeroterra Arts where we hold our youth troupe sessions
- The parents of our students, who trust us to teach their kids, and who do the hard work of getting them to and from classes
- The folks at TAPAZ, our fiscal sponsor, that provides a lot of the back-end services that allow us to run this small business more easily
And of course, thanks to you, the friends of Phoenix Youth Circus Arts, that understand the value of what we do. Wishing everyone a great end to 2025 and a wonderful 2026.
NOTE: This message was written by a human being! Whether well or poorly said, these are sincerely and truly my thoughts! Jens