We are the only remaining group from the original 1886 St Paul Winter Carnival
We have been around since 1886 – entertaining the crowds for over 137 years!
Our story
We have been around since 1886 – entertaining the crowds for over 137 years!
The St Paul Bouncing Team is loosely affiliated with the start of the St Paul Winter Carnival, which began in 1886. It was prompted by an article by a New York Reporter who in 1885 wrote that Saint Paul was “another Siberia, unfit for human habitation” in winter.
Offended by this attach on their fair city, the St Paul Chamber of Commerce decided that they needed to prove that its citizens were very much alive during the winter. Thus, the St Paul Winter Carnival was born.
In the beginning, there were many squads of bouncers and flyers that would travel the parade routes and entertain the crowds every January. In the 1930’s, Lucile Leopold became the first St Paul Athletic Club “Bouncing Girl.”
Since then, hundreds of intrepid women have flown with us, wearing the title of Bouncing Girl. When the Athletic Club closed its doors in the early 1990’s, the core of the team reinvented itself and became the nonprofit it is today, supported by its members and making roughly 12 appearances each year.
