SCARBOROUGH – Thirty years is a long time.

The world of 1981 was a very different place. Nobody had even dreamed of the Internet. There were no cell phones, and no laptops and the big world threat came from a country no longer on the map, the Soviet Union.

So, thankfully, Scarborough’s Jon Cahill has spent those 30 years doing something he loves. And next week, the community will get a chance to appreciate the fruits of his 30 years of labor as the group he founded in 1981, the Gym Dandies, give a special anniversary performance at Scarborough High School.

In 1981, Cahill, who was then a physical education teacher at Wentworth Intermediate School in Scarborough, conceived of a novel idea – he would get his students more engaged in exercise by incorporating juggling.

“I always tried to do different things in my phys ed classes– not just the same stuff,” Cahill said. “When we started, we had 10 kids and a bucket of tennis balls. The kids really liked it, though, so we had a juggle-a-thon to raise money to buy a few unicycles.”

When the bikes arrived, Cahill was just as untrained as the kids under him. Like them, however, he was eager to get riding.

“I learned with them,” he said, laughing. “It was really tough, because I was about 35 years old.”

The unicycles, as it turned out, were every bit as popular as the juggling, and the budding club soon put together a performance group that traveled around to area schools. They called it the Gym Dandies, and the group was so successful in capturing the imagination of younger children that it exploded in popularity with each passing year.

“The first year we had 10 or 12 kids, and the next year we were up to 25,” he said. “When we went around to the schools and performed for the kids there, (the kids at those schools) all wanted to join. So the next year we had 25, and the year after that we were up to 80. After the first five years we were up to 135 or so kids.”

The Dandies, which have grown into a nationally recognized program, and a successful marriage of fun and fitness, will be giving its 30th anniversary community performances at the Scarborough High School Alumni Gymnasium on March 31 and April 1 at 6:30 p.m.

The performance will feature school-age children from Scarborough playing unihockey, which is a crazy version of ice hockey played on unicycles; three-, four-, and five-ball jugglers; stilt walkers, globe walkers, off-road unicycles and over 80 “giraffe” unicyclists performing simultaneously on unicycles where the seat is on a long “neck” about six feet off the ground. The Gym Dandies are the only performing group in the world who can field these numbers.

This year, the annual event is as much a celebration of all that Cahill has done for the youth of Scarborough as it is for the team he nurtured, and anticipation is running high for those who will be performing.

“The community performance is like the biggest event,” said Chris Franklin, 11, who is a sixth-grader at Wentworth. “I am a little nervous, because this year I am involved in a lot of different things, and I am singled out in a lot of them because I am the only one who can do stuff like five-ball juggling. It involves rapid throws and it’s really hard. Doing it in front of five or six hundred people is really scary.”

Like many of the children involved in the Dandies, Franklin is multi-talented, and he spends as much time riding an off-road unicycle as he does practicing his juggling.

“I practice maybe two or three times a week, sometimes every day,” he said. “I will actually take my unicycle out and ride it like you would ride a bicycle.”

The Dandies aren’t just for younger kids, though. A handful of high school seniors have worked their way up through the program over the years, and now serve as leaders. One of these seniors is Emilia Scheemaker, a standout track star for the Red Storm, who seems as at home juggling while astride a giant ball as she is tearing it up on the track.

“I am excited and kind of nervous (about this community performance),” Scheemaker said. “There is a lot of pressure, because we (the seniors) are supposed to be leading the whole thing. (Cahill) taught me a lot of the juggling skills I know. Like, we used to sit in the library and just work on juggling skills. It kind of feels like learning from the master, I guess.”

As far as juggling while walking on a giant globe is concerned, Scheemaker said one skill was actually much more difficult to learn than the other.

“The juggling took a long time, but once I had it, the globe-walking took like five minutes,” she said. “I could easily teach you how to globe walk right now.”

Thanks to Cahill’s dedication, the Gym Dandies have plied their trade on the national stage, performing in events like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, the Cherry Blossom Festival Parade in Washington, D.C., and the West Virginia Strawberry Festival. This summer, the group will travel to Philadelphia to perform in the Independence Day Parade.

But beyond the performances, Cahill’s influence is changing how many high schools in Maine approach physical education. The Dandies have become a model for other physical education programs that are working to integrate engaging hobbies with athleticism. None, however, yet rival the original.

“This has become my life’s work,” Cahill said. “I think what’s really special about Gym Dandies is that there is so much to do. The way I have it set up is that it’s all goal-oriented. Everything is in levels and skills, and you continually work to succeed at each level, and then they move onto the next. So it’s challenging and it’s fun. Our motto is ‘practice makes everything possible,’ and I try to relate that you everything they do; not just what they learn at Gym Dandies.”

The payoff for Cahill is in seeing so many young people engaged in something that’s both fun and healthy, and you can see the results in the devotion of those he trains.

“I will definitely do this for as long as I can,” Franklin said. “It seems really cool to be able to go through all the way and do it until you’re a senior.”

Members of Scarborough’s Gym Dandies play the crowd-favorite game “unihockey” during a performance. The circus group, featuring up to 200 local children performing entertaining acts of balance and precision, is celebrating its 30th year, and will hold its annual community performances March 31 and April 1 at Scarborough High School.Courtesy photo