JUGHEADS
Youth Juggling Company, LLC
5905 Concord Avenue
Edina, MN 55424
jugheads@comcast.net
or 952.926.0896

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March 2003

“Tribute to The Neighborhood”

Before I juggled, sang, acted, and played team sports, I watched TV for about four hours a day. I permanently discarded this habit when I discovered middle school activities. (There are so many better uses of time!) However, I do have fond memories of my “TV Days” of youth (Thursday Rec. will pay tribute to nostalgic TV shows in Juggle Jam V). Of particular note is my recollection of my noontime ritual after arriving home from nursery school at age 4: My mom would prepare for me a light lunch and I would sit down to watch “Sesame Street” followed by “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

The latter was founded by Mr. Fred Rogers, an ordained Presbyterian minister, in 1968. “I got into television because I hated it so,” Mr. Rogers once said. Mr. Rogers took me on a daily trip to the Land of Make-Believe; he had special guests with various skills and talents; he used puppets to teach life lessons and make learning both engaging and fun, even though we viewers were merely active listeners and not hands-on participants.

Unwittingly, I have adopted some of Mr. Rogers’ strategies for ministering to children, such as using creativity and an available medium (Community Ed.) to reach kids in a special way. Like Mr. Rogers, I can’t fully know the affect I’m having on kids; the kids themselves may never fully know how they’ve been affected. You see, as campy, corny and seemingly out of touch Mr. Rogers was (he was already 39 years old when he began his TV show), he helped to shape me into the person I am, including my career of influencing kids. Thank you, Fred, for your ministry through television. I grew up in your Neighborhood, and you played a part in creating the neighborhood that is JUGHEADS. I hope, in some small way, to leave youth with a legacy as time-tested and fruitful as yours. FRED ROGERS, 1929-2003