ProRodeo Sports News - August 21, 2020

Photo courtesy Justin Lamb Hosting the Southeastern Pro Rodeo in Ocala, Fla., is a family affair for Justin Lamb, left, and his dad, Ruben, right. At center is committee member Bret Mills, whom Justin credited for helping keep the 2020 rodeo on.

“We call it ‘social differencing,’” said Mark Campbell, the Northwest Montana Fair and Rodeo Manager. “That’s what we’ve been dealing with for the last two months on trying to understand, listen and adapt as required.” MORE THAN JUST RODEO ProRodeo events can be the anchor attraction for the biggest annual event in a community, and with that comes a multitude of locals who rely on it. “We do it for the people who are part of it – the contestants, the 4-H and FFAmembers, the food group that does their annual fundraiser,” Campbell said. “It’s not an economic decision on our part, we aren’t gaining, we’re going the opposite way, but we’re OK with making that effort for the people who are part of it.” Castle Rock’s crew maintained an attitude of how to do it differently to make it happen, Mills said. Cuts were made, such as removing the carnival and entertainment. “Having the junior livestock sale was important to us and the rodeo,” Mills said. “We had to give up a perf on Friday to host the livestock sale.” All three rodeos agreed, a complete cancelation wasn’t an option. “The folks we built relationships with are like family in our circuit and depend on rodeos for their livelihood,” Lamb said. “We wanted to support the folks who need us so they can be there for us next year and after that.” A MOVING TARGET Kalispell’s fair board unanimously wanted to keep the rodeo, and flexibility was the key to making it happen, Campbell said. “There are not only a lot of rules, but they’re changing,” Campbell said. Kalispell’s capacity was reduced to 30% and Ocala’s was 50%. In Castle Rock, 500 people were allowed in the stands that hold 2,400. At Ocala, the next struggle was setting a new date for the rodeo but not knowing when things would reopen and then the logistics of getting everyone

together. “We thought we would work through it in four weeks, but we were just getting into the thick of it,” Lamb said. “It was probably some of the most stressful days and months I’d ever had. There were a lot of sleepless nights in July.” Castle Rock was granted a variance as a large gallery venue near the beginning of June. “We had 54 days to pull all of it together, the 4-H shows, the rodeo, all of it,” Mills said. “We didn’t believe it would happen until it was over. We couldn’t do it without the sponsors.” Mills also pointed to their stock contractor, Summit ProRodeo, the fairgrounds staff and rodeo co-chair John Adams for the countless hours of work it took to make the rodeo happen. “We hope we don’t have to go through another year of it, but we really learned a lot about what we can do differently,” said Louanne Lee, the Douglas County fairgrounds manager. “Considering the challenges we had, we couldn’t have done better.” Closing the Canadian border had a big impact on the Kalispell rodeo since it’s about an hour south of Canada. Fans and competitors were stuck north of the 49th parallel, along with their stock contractor. Luckily, the committee found an available stock contractor about a month before the rodeo began who was able to accommodate their increase in entries, from 230 contestants to 445. “That’s a big jump, so I’d like to commend our stock contactor and our board because this is important to the contestants to have an opportunity to participate,” Campbell said. “Kudos to Binion Cervi for making it open to all.” Although each rodeo started out different from the norm, the result was the same. “It came together beautifully and seamlessly,” Lamb said. “You’d have never known we had just gone through this very difficult time.”

ProRodeo Sports News 8/21/2020

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