The Bristow Round Up Club (BRUC) presented the two-day Western Heritage Days Rodeo and crowned its 2021-2022 royalty last weekend. Held in tandem with Western Heritage Days festivities, the club puts on the rodeo, during which it crowns its annual royalty winners. On Friday, the first night of the two-day rodeo went on as planned; however, Saturday’s rodeo events were postponed until Sunday morning at 9 a.m. due to inclement weather. The weather also necessitated cancelation of the much-anticipated dance and postponement of the royalty crowning ceremony.
Regarding BRUC royalty, BRUC Secretary and member Rikki VanOrsdol ran the competition. She explained that the lovely ladies chosen as royalty earned those honors through hard work and dedication to the organization. To be eligible to enter, each contestant must be a BRUC member. Contestants vying for queen must also be single, never-married, and have no children. All contestants compete against others within their own age categories: queen contestants must be between the ages of 17 and 24, princess contestants between ages 9 and 16, and sweetheart contestants fit ages 8 and under.
Mrs. VanOrsdol described the process of BRUC royalty contestants vying for their crowns through three key areas: fundraising, horsemanship, and the completion of an interview. All contestants must secure at least 70% of the total possible points to win.
For the fundraising portion of the contest, each contestant sells raffle tickets and receives points based upon their sales. The contestant who sells the most tickets receives the most points. Fundraising points earned make up 50% of each contestant’s final point tally.
The horsemanship competition requires contestants to learn a specific pattern and perform it in full western attire: boots, jeans, belt, long-sleeved, collared shirt, and hat. Horsemanship points earned make up 30% of each contestant’s final point tally.
During the interview portion, judges award points based upon a contestant’s personality traits and knowledge of equine science. This final category makes up 20% of a contestant’s final point tally. Of special note, if only one young lady enters the competition in her age category, she is not automatically crowned the winner; instead, she must complete the competition and earn at least 70% of the total possible points like contestants in other age groups.
Sunday morning, BRUC crowned its royalty: Queen Sunshine Groom, Princess Piper Varner, and Sweetheart Cady Jo Franklin. Although they did not win, additional contestants named by BRUC for their hard work and dedication include Princess Runner-Up Sierra Willing and Sweetheart Runner-Up Kennedy Smith. Sunshine Groom was the lone queen contestant this year.
As for those raffle tickets, BRUC held two raffles this year for a gun and an ice chest. Johnathan Scroggs won the gun raffle, and Teresa Ledgerwood won the ice chest. Please be sure to congratulate BRUC royalty and raffle winners.
Anyone interested in learning more may check out the “Bristow Round Up Club” Facebook page or call BRUC President Kevin Banks at 918-230-2142.