Meet aerialist Samantha Ellen Pitard, she is one of eight acrobats performing a hair-hanging stunt on Sunday, May 4, 2014, during a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus when a clip at the top of the chandelier-like apparatus snapped. Fortunately Pitard is the first of the acrobats to be released from the hospital.
Samantha Pitard told The Associated Press after being released from a hospital Tuesday.
“For me, you gotta get back up and do it again,”
For some it might come as a shock but when for others –not the majority –will understand that when you have found your passion in life there is nothing that can stop you. You can’t tell a bullfighter to stop bullfighting because he was gored, you can’t tell a racing driver to stop driving after surviving a car crash and you can’t tell an aerialist to stop flying through the airs.
23-year-old Samantha a native of Champaign, Illinois is the daughter of Wayne and Angie McCall Pitard, she has a sister named Sarah who is an artistic director for a theater in London. Below we can see a picture of Samantha as a little girl, along with her older sister Sarah and both of her parents.
Sam attended Centennial High School in Roswell, Georgia graduating in the class of 2009. For her circus formation she attended New England Center for Circus Arts in Brattleboro, Vermont. She joined her current family at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 2012 and actually started out as a clown until she moved up recently as an aerialist. According to her Facebook she has been one since last November.
Before performing with the Ringling Bros. she worked at Six Flags New England as a Costume Character/Stilt Jumper back in 2010. She then worked for the Disneyland located in Anaheim, California, in the entertainment department in late 2012.
What either of the eight girls, including Samantha never imagined was just before noon on Sunday, as the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence was filled with thousands of local families, the curtain dropped to reveal a human chandelier – one of the highlights of the circus’ Legends show. Seconds later, the metal apparatus abruptly collapsed, sending the women hurtling to the ground before the equipment landed on top of them.
She described her injuries, including fractures on her spine, a cut on her head that required three stitches and a badly bitten tongue, as minor.
Pitard is the only one of the troupe who can walk on her own.
We are glad to know she is doing fine and keep the rest of the girls in our prayers.
You can find Samantha on Facebook here.
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