WILLMAR - This morning school buses will fill the Willmar Civic Center parking lot bringing in third-graders from west central Minnesota.
Perhaps 2,000 schoolchildren and their chaperons will fill the Cardinal Arena for the special 10 a.m. Willmar Zuhrah Shrine Circus. Public shows will follow at 7 p.m. tonight and
10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturday.
Marshall third-graders will attend the Saturday morning show free, which is also the Grandparents’ Show. With a paid admission, the grandkids get in free.
Dave Stuhr, circus co-chair, said Willmar volunteers will be supplemented by help from Shrine centers in Litchfield, Minneapolis and Fergus Falls, plus the Western Minnesota Center.
This is the 25th annual Willmar Zuhrah Shrine Circus, and the 17th year it’s been held at Willmar Civic Center. The first eight years the circus was in town, it was held in a tent on the Kandi Mall parking lot.
The James Cristy Cole Circus returns for a 13th time. The Texas-based show performed in Kansas on Tuesday before heading north with its trailers carrying an elephant, a camel, dogs, horses and, this year, at least one alligator. Leaving Willmar, the circus heads to Nebraska.
Stuhr said he chose third-graders for the free show because they seemed “Just the right age to both behave yet fully enjoy the wonders of the circus. We want every child to see at least one quality circus in their lifetime.”
The free show also features a drawing for free bikes, perhaps four or five this year. Each third-grader also gets a free cotton candy or a sno-cone.
