IJA Award Recipients

The IJA from time to time bestows special awards on deserving individuals or groups to honor them for a particular service or excellence. Named below are the recipients of these awards over the years. (See also the awards and service provided by the Flamingo Club.)

Click on a link below to jump to that award.

Award of Excellence	Historical Achievement Award	Bobby May Award	Extraordinary Service Award
Founder's Award	Excellence in Education	People's Choice Award	Honorary Life Members

Recipients of the IJA Award of Excellence
This award acknowledges the jugglers who have represented the best the art has to offer through a career of professional performance.
1989	Anthony Gatto	1990	Kris Kremo
1991	Sergei Ignatov	1992	Michael Moschen
1993	Gregory Popovich	1995	Dick Franco
1996	Albert Lucas	1997	Art Jennings

Recipients of the Historical Achievement Award
This award honors jugglers who have in their careers shown extraordinary juggling achievements. The winner is customarily invited to the IJA festival with all expenses paid. The award consists of an engraved plaque accompanied by a framed certificate of the board's proclamation.
1991	Trixie Larue	1992	Lotte Brunn
1994	Gus Lauppe	1995	Rudy Cardenas
1996	Bob Bramson	1997	Ernst Kuhn Montego
2000	Rudy Horn	2001	Fudi
2002	Evgeni Biljauer

Recipients of the Bobby May Award
The IJA Bobby May Award honors a juggler or juggling coach for helping other jugglers with their acts. New and experienced performers alike seek out the advice and critique of their peers in their quest to improve their acts. Not everyone is receptive to these inquiries. However, some performers are known as able, receptive mentors who are always willing to help those who seek them out. The award is named for Bobby May, who was one of these mentors. Despite his international reputation, Bobby May always had time to coach young jugglers who showed up on his doorstep or at the backstage door.
1995	Dan Holzman	2003	Nick Gatto & Albert Moreira
2004	Robert A. Nelson The Butterfly Man

Recipients of the IJA Extraordinary Service Award
This award is given to living jugglers who show outstanding service to the field of juggling. It is primarily intended for those who have shown consistent commitment to the promotion of juggling. The award consists of an engraved plaque and a framed certificate of the board's proclamation.
1989	Karl-Heinz Ziethen	1993	Bill Giduz
1997	Richard Chamberlin	1999	Ginny Rose
2000	Rob Peck & Dina Scharnhorst	2004	Roger Montandon
2005	Martin Frost

Recipients of the IJA Founders Award
The IJA Founders Award is given to recognize a juggler whose performance at any point during the annual festival best reflects the spirt of vaudeville entertainment that the organization's founders upheld. The award committee seeks a performer whose act shows a logical progression from beginning to middle to end, contains no drops, demonstrates outstanding and engaging characterization and conveys good comedy and variety arts skills. The award is a 10-1/2" statuette of IJA founder Art Jennings as The Bum Juggler. This award was retired after 1999.
1991	Andrew Head	1992	Daniel Gulko
1993	Michael Menes	1994	Kosen Kagami
1995	John Gilkey	1996	Bob Nickerson
1999	Paul Arneberg

Recipients of the Excellence In Education Award
This award is given to "to bring attention to the amazing people who teach juggling, for without them, where would we all be." It recognizes outstanding efforts by individuals to teach juggling either to non-jugglers or to those who already juggle. Nominations for the award may be made by any member of the organization, and nominees need not be IJA members. The award is a framed certificate and three apples for the winning teacher. This award was created by, and has been sponsored for many years by Laura Green, a longtime friend of jugglers everywhere.
1991	Dave Finnigan	1992	Mike Vondruska
1993	Jahnathon Whitfield	1994	Kit Summers
1995	Myron Wilcox	1996	Laurie Young & Kay Caskey
1997	Hovey Burgess	1998	Perry Rubenfeld
1999	Rob Peck	2000	Paul Arneberg
2001	Kevin O'Keefe	2002	Bud Markowitz, Michael Rosman & Todd Strong
2004	Jackie "Mr. E" Erickson	2005	Kevin Delagrange

Recipients of the People's Choice Award
The People's Choice Award reflects the popularity of an individual performer or group of performers during the festival week. Festival attendees vote based on feelings about an individual's or group's contribution to the festival. Ballots must be turned in by the specified deadline (near the end of the festival). The winner is announced at one of the final festival events and receives a hand-crafted trophy made and donated by Russ O'Brien of the Akron juggling club.
1987	Bounce & Ooo La La	1988	Philippine Pride Jugglers
1989	Sergei / Jeffrey Daymont	1990	Arsene
1991	Laura Green	1992	Elliot Cutler
1993	Masahiro Mizuno	1994	Ngaio Bealum
1995	John Gilkey	1996	Gil Pontius
1997	Jorg Muller	1998	Les Tourisks
1999	The Gandini Juggling Project	2000	Jason Garfield
2001	The Boehmer Family	2002	Perpetual Motion: Chuck Hawley & Anthony Shave
2003	Team Rootberry: Jonathan Root & Bill Berry	2004	Luke Burrage
2005	Matt Hall

Honorary Life Members
Honorary IJA Life Memberships are given in recognition of IJA members demonstrating dedicated service to the organization over a long period of time. The award consists of a framed certificate and all benefits of a lifetime membership in the IJA.
Before 1979	George Barvin*	Before 1979	William Brown*
Before 1979	Eva Crosby*	Before 1979	Art Jennings
Before 1979	Bernard Joyce*	Before 1979	Roger Montandon
1979	Bill Dietrich	1979	Bobby May*
1979	Stu Raynolds	1983	Roger Dollarhide
1990	Mary Wilkins	1991	Phineas Indritz*
1995	Eddie Johnson*	1996	Betty Willer

* Passed away.
(If you know the date of induction of any the 'Before 1979' Honorary Life Members, please contact the webmaster)