Portland Jugglers
Ben Linder Memorial Award for Inspiration
Every year the Ben Linder Memorial Award for Inspiration is given out to a juggler nominated by festival attendees. It is typically given to a juggler who is present at the event and you must attend the festival to make your nomination. All PJF attendees are encouraged to nominate a the person that inspires them most at the festival.
Ben Linder was a Portland juggler and a graduate of University of Washington, who was building a small-scale hydroelectric generator to bring electricity to a remote village of El Cuá in war-torn Nicaragua. Ben often used his circus skills to help others, such as juggling, unicycling, and clowning to bring children into a field clinic for immunization shots. Ben Linder was ambushed and murdered by US-backed Contra forces on April 28, 1987 at the age of 27.
The Portland Juggling Festival created this award, with the support of the Linder family, to keep the memory of Ben Linder alive and honor his spirit of inspiration in the service of community and humanity.
Recipients of The Ben Linder Memorial Award
2023 — Scramble James
2022 — John Spinosa
2020 & 2021 — Exuro Piechocki
2019 — Wes Peden and Florence Huet
2018 — Anni Küpper
2017 — Maria Thomas
2016 — Cate “Cate Great!” Flaherty
2015 — Bri Crabtree
2014 — Sisyphus Farms:
Charlie Brown, and Zephyr Brown
2013 — David Groth
2012 — Curtis Carlyle
2011 — Sarah Liane Foster
2010 — Bekka Rose
2009 — Circus Conspiracy:
Matthew “Poki” McCorkle
and Brian Thompson
2008 — Thomas Dietz
2007 — Clowns Without Borders
2006*
2005 — Nathan Hoover
2004 — Matt Hall
2003 — Vova Galchenko and Olga Galchenko
2002 — Viktor Kee
2001 — David Lichtenstein
2000 — Masahiro Mizuno
1999 — Frank Olivier
1998 — Robert “Butterfly Man” Nelson
1997 — Adam Adler
1996 — Laura Green
1995 — Jill Westover
1994 — Rhys Thomas
1993 — Scott 'Mag' Hughes
1992 — Stuart Celarier