The Selma – Dallas County Public Library opened with a juggling show performed for the children on Monday morning.

Brian Bruggeman, a professional juggler from Carrollton, Georgia, visited the Selma-Dallas County Public Library to display his juggling skills and allow children to join in on the fun as well.

According to Bruggeman, he has been juggling for 20 years and has been visiting Selma for 10 years, declaring it as one of his favorite places to visit.

During the performance, children were given colorful scarves and some were even given the opportunity to balance plates.

According to Bruggeman, he enjoys performing for the children and was happy that the audience was zealous and enjoyed the show.

“It’s great,” Bruggeman said. “They were a great audience today. You get a lot of enthusiasm, so it’s fun. I really enjoyed it.”

Bruggeman is an avid traveler, and has been booked in many places throughout the southeast. However most of his shows are in Georgia.

Traveling from one place to another, packing up and unloading for the next show can be tiring, Buggeman said. Despite his frequent migration, he said he has passion for what he does.

“It was just something I always wanted to do, it was on my bucket list,” Buggeman said. “It was something I wanted to try, and when I did it, I fell in love with it and wanted to do it more and more.”

“Selma-Dallas County Public Library director Becky Nichols, like the children, said she enjoyed Buggeman’s visit and performance.

“Today was just unbelievable and wonderful,” said Nichols. “Brian has been coming for 10 years and he is just a wonderful entertainer, but he is also a teacher. One of the things that he did was give every child a scarf, and they were juggling the scarves and getting comfortable with throwing them up and letting them come down. So it was more than just entertainment, it was almost a juggling class, for grown-ups, too. This is always a time of a lot of fun and a lot of great memories.”

According to Nichols, the children were shocked and did not expect everyone to receive a scarf to juggle with.

“We had a lot of children that were just excited over having a colorful scarf,” Nichols said. “But then when you saw them all throwing them up together, it was something pretty wonderful.”

According to Nichols, her goal is to provide children with entertainment that also has facets of education enlaced within it; she feels that by allowing children to have fun they will be willing to learn.

“We combine education and entertainment,” Nichols said. “We love bringing performers in and having a good time, but the main thing is that these children are coming to the library and going upstairs to borrow books or to get excited about reading, and that’s a wonderful combination. That’s what we’re up to; we’re trying to bring children and books together.”