By Dan Aceto

Staff Writer

When Jon Cahill shouts, “tomato alert,” students listen.

No, they’re not on the lookout for incoming produce, but waiting to learn how to balance plates, juggle tennis balls or ride a unicycle. 

“That means sit down and listen,” Cahill, a former physical education teacher at Wentworth Intermediate School, said with a laugh. “I still say it with the high school kids too.” 

For the past 30 years, Cahill has issued “tomato alerts” to students of the Scarborough-based Gym Dandies program, an after-school juggling and unicycle club he founded in 1981. 

Since its inception, the club has grown to include more than 200 students from grades three to 12, and now is recognized as the largest operating children’s circus in the United States, Cahill said. 

The club, which teaches children technical skills such as juggling atop 6-foot unicycles, routinely performs throughout the country. On March 31 and April 1, Gym Dandies will showcase their talent with the annual community performance at Scarborough High School gymnasium.  

Although the Gym Dandies legacy has become a piece of Scarborough history, the club had modest beginnings, Cahill said.

“We started out with 10 kids and a bucket of tennis balls,” Cahill said.

Cahill taught physical education for 32 years and began the club after he invited a resident to teach juggling. He said the kids gravitated toward the uniqueness of the skill.

“I was always trying to look for different activities for kids to do,” Cahill said. “Some things like basketball don’t fit the needs of all the kids, so you need to expand your horizon.”

Inspired, he soon incorporated other forms of entertainment into the routine, such as unicycles of varying heights. 

As the popularity of the program grew, Cahill decided to showcase the students’ ability and held the first performance in 1983 at Bessey School in Scarborough.

After years of regular performances at community events, the U.S. Department of the Interior asked the Gym Dandies to perform and represent Maine at the Independence Day parade in Washington, D.C., on July 4, 2000.

“That really got our name out regionally and nationally,” Cahill said. “The picture that was taken of us ran in newspapers across the country, even the Miami Herald.” 

Soon the Gym Dandies began traveling across the country, making stops at the Orange Bowl parade in Miami, Fla., the Montreal Cycling Festival – the world’s largest cycling event – and the children’s television program “Zoom” on the Public Broadcasting Service.

The recognition eventually landed students a gig on one of the world’s largest performance stages: Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. 

Scarborough resident Heather Sirocki, who was the booster chairman for Gym Dandies at the time, remembered the experience.

“There were two and half million people watching the parade, the numbers were just staggering. The crowd was so loud, it sounded like a roar. I remember seeing police officers on the side of road saying they had never seen anything like this,” Sirocki said.

Brandon Baines, 22 of Scarborough, led the group of students.

“We were up on 6-foot-tall unicycles juggling at the same time. It was pretty exciting,” Baines said.

Cahill said the success of the program comes from the collective talent each student brings to the table.

“Sure it’s interesting if one person does it, but if 30 do it then it really becomes awe-inspiring,” Cahill said. “Someone once said we looked like a forest of steel.” 

The program now includes a multitude of tricks and routines, including unicycle hockey and students linking arm and arm to form a star.

Cahill said the name for the Gym Dandies arose from a teacher’s use of the phrase as a team name on a chart outside her door for her student’s progress in Cahill’s gym class. Having just formed the juggling troupe, Cahill thought the name fit perfectly so he adapted its use for the program. The rest is history.

Cahill said the “performance level” group of Gym Dandies, which travels nationally, consists of approximately 80 students per year. 

Admittance however, is no easy task.  

Cahill said each student must master a variety of skills, including riding a 6-foot “giraffe” unicycle and juggling three or more balls simultaneously in a cascading pattern.  

Fortunately, he has broken the learning process into different stages of difficulty to allow students a natural progression of advancement. 

By dividing each technique into five increasingly difficult levels, Cahill establishes a method of setting goals that awards students with greater privileges and opportunities as they learn. 

“It’s about experiencing success,” Cahill said. “Once they experience success, they want to keep going.” 

Students attain performance level status by being proficient at all skills and obtaining a rating of four out of five in all categories at every skill level.

David Sloatman, a teacher at Wentworth who has worked with Cahill for seven years, said some students take things even a step further. 

“Sometimes kids will invent routines themselves,” Sloatman said. “They’ll dream up things we never even thought of.” 

Scarborough resident Glen Reed was one of those students. An original Gym Dandies member, Reed said he remembers when he  accidently discovered the trick known as “peg-legging,” or riding with one foot.

“We were all racing around playing chase on our unicycles when my foot slipped off one of the pedals,” Reed said. “My momentum carried me for about two pedal revolutions and someone said, ‘Hey, that was awesome, wouldn’t it be cool if we could actually ride like that?’ Soon after, five or six of us were performing that trick at all of our shows.”

Reed, who said his daughters are now in the program, is in awe of what the students now perform.

“I was amazed by the new tricks the kids had developed at the community show almost 30 years later,” Reed said.

Scarborough resident David Grover, 13, has pioneered his own technique. After seeing a video clip on the website YouTube of someone pedaling a unicycle by using their feet on the wheel of the bike instead of pedals, he decided to try the feat atop a 6-foot unicycle. 

“It took about a month to learn,” Grover said. 

Cahill was astonished. 

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.

Grover’s brother, Luke, also incorporated a new routine into the club’s performance. When the Gym Dandies finish this year’s performance, members will all flip the unicycles over and spin the pedals. 

For students who look for an even greater challenge, Cahill offers several unicycles that make even the boldest dandy quiver, including a unicycle without a seat, called “the impossible wheel,” and one with two wheels stacked on top of each other that requires the user to pedal backward to move forward. 

“No matter how good you are, there is always another skill level to go to,” Cahill said. “It’s about continual progress.” 

Cahill said many students work on skills at home in their spare time in addition to attending multiple practice sessions a week. 

Seventh-grader Kelly Jordan, 13, is one of three students who can ride the “impossible wheel.” She was able to conquer the skill in a matter of minutes. 

“It took about 10 minutes to learn,” Jordan said. “The trick is to keep all your weight on both of your feet.” 

Cahill said the club not only helps students develop a unique set of skills, but build character.                                

 “They learn that if they work at something hard enough, they can do anything,” Cahill said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s unicycling or French.” 

Cahill said that he has seen many students overcome obstacles in life through the Gym Dandies, including one student who was so determined to ride a unicycle she learned how to do it with her prosthetic leg.

Cahill said he has eight instructors who assist him in the program, including four  high school seniors and a college instructor. He said students often assist and encourage themselves and push each other to greater heights. 

“That’s the secret to the whole program,” Cahill said. “Kids see other kids do amazing stuff, they see that it’s possible, and it makes them want to do it.” 

Carolyn Bennett, a senior at Scarborough High School, said the she enjoys helping the young kids first begin the program.

“We start with scarves and work our way up, juggling one scarf, then two and three. It’s a very progressive learning style,” Bennett said. 

Cahill said learning to ride the unicycle can be intimidating at first, but patience is key. 

“You have to keep your weight on the seat and use the wall as a support with a partner to learn to fall forward,” Cahill said. “You have to deal with incredible frustration and have to be patient and persistent.”

Bennett said the instruction Cahill provides is second to none.

“He knows how to encourage kids and get them excited to practice, even if it’s at first very difficult,” Bennett said. 

Sirocki, who said Cahill is referred to as the “gym daddy,” agreed. 

“It takes a lot of time and commitment, from a dedicated person like Jon,” Sirocki said. “It’s not something you can just do once a week. You need to be able to commit enough time to it – he’s there five days a week.” 

Although Cahill may no longer ride a unicycle, he does get around on another pair of wheels: Rollerblades.

“I’m trying to make it to 70. Without the skates I wouldn’t be able to do it,” Cahill said with a laugh. “Sometimes I say, ‘I can’t think without my skates on!’”

Cahill said the community performance is not only the club’s biggest fundraiser, but one of the group’s most heartfelt events of the year. 

“The community performance means the most to us,” Cahill said. 

He said students work tirelessly to hone their technique and performing live allows members to demonstrate their accomplishments. 

“Once they perform they realize how unique they are and get to see all of their hard work pay off,” Cahill said.

For Cahill, there is one thing that keeps him coming back year after year.

“There’s nothing compared to the look on a kid’s face when he finally gets something he’s been working on,” Cahill said. “Every day I go home and say, ‘guess what this kid did today!’ There’s nothing like it and it happens 10 to 15 times every practice. The satisfaction they get from that success every week is what keeps me going.”