Nik Wallenda teams up with LECOM for holiday circus

There’s a new tent in town.

It’s black inside and has plush seats with cupholders. It belongs to Sarasota superstar aerialist Nik Wallenda, who bought it for his annual holiday Wonderland Circus.

For the first two editions of Wonderland, Wallenda borrowed a tent from the Circus Arts Conservatory, the Sarasota nonprofit.

Besides his new tent, Wallenda has new partners for Wonderland, whose theme is “Believe” this year. LECOM, the acronym for the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, has signed a three-year deal with Wallenda’s circus.

One of the largest medical schools in the country with campuses in Pennsylvania, Upstate New York and Bradenton/Lakewood Ranch, LECOM’s name may be familiar to locals.

It owns LECOM Park, where the Pittsburgh Pirates play, oldies radio WSRQ-FM 88.5, and sponsors the LECOM Suncoast Classic, a pro golf tournament that takes place annually at the Lakewood Ranch National Golf Club.

Operating a radio station and sponsoring baseball parks, a golf tournament and a circus might seem like a strange marketing strategy for a company that owns hospitals, senior living centers and medical schools. But it makes sense to LECOM.

The goal is to improve life in the community, says Jim Schaffner, special assistant to the CEO of LECOM.

Putting LECOM’s name in front of young students and their families attending Wonderland Circus is a no-brainer, according to Schaffner. 

“Nik Wallenda is an international star and a local hero. He goes out of his way to do good things for Sarasota and Bradenton,” says Schaffner, who is a snowbird here.

Wallenda said finding new partners was essential due to “a change in management” at the CAC. In 2024, Dolly Jacobs and Pedro Reis stepped down from day-to-day management of the nonprofit they co-founded in 1997. 

Jennifer Mitchell moved up to CAC president and CEO from executive vice president and COO while Jacobs continues her involvement in the conservatory.

In a brief interview, Mitchell emphasized the importance of the nonprofit’s educational activities, its main priority. “While we support circus at all levels, we must remain focused on our nonprofit mission,” she says. 

The matchmaker on the Wonderland/LECOM deal was Matt Moldovan, the former director of sales at ABC 7 TV who is now vice president of sales at Reach United, a digital marketing company. 

Reach United was founded by Matt Buchanan of Sarasota Ford and entrepreneur Jesse Biter, founder of Homenet, an auto sales software firm that he sold to Cox Automotive.

Knocking on doors

You may wonder how Wallenda, whose family traces its circus roots to Austria-Hungary in the 1700s, got hooked up with folks in the car business.

It’s an interesting story. “When I was doing my walk across downtown Sarasota in 2013, I knew I wanted to stop traffic on U.S. 41 to get statewide attention,” he says.

Wallenda identified the Marina Tower unit where he wanted to string the wire to Bayfront Park and found the owner. That person was Biter.

Wallenda did the same thing when he walked across Times Square in New York City, where he owns Big Apple Circus. “You get to know the people and you become friends,” he says. 

Hey, you may even go into business with them.

When Wallenda started Wonderland in 2023, some speculated whether there was room for another circus in town since the CAC holds its annual Circus Sarasota in February-March at a tent near UTC and its Summer Circus Spectacular at The Ringling’s Historic Asolo Theater, which has expanded to nine weeks.

To hear Wallenda tell it, the biggest problem in fast-growing Sarasota isn’t finding audiences, but getting visas for foreign performers to enter the U.S. On a recent day, in between setting up the new tent and walking the wire three times a day to prepare for a Nov. 8 criss-cross walk with his sister Lijana, he was searching for a team of skaters for Wonderland: Believe.

Interactive videos had already been made incorporating the theme of roller skating and the Ethiopian act that Wallenda was counting on was denied a visa. “It will all work out,” he told an interviewer, hinting at the deep reservoir of faith that underpins everything he does.

Circus acts vary from year to year at Wonderland, but two performers are perennials: daredevil clown Johnny Rockett and Ty McFarlan, a former ringmaster with Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey who serves as master of ceremonies. “Those guys are my team,” Wallenda says.