Sean C. Morgan
60/20/12
After nearly 70 years of annual shows, the 2012 Sweet Home Rodeo has been canceled.
“Basically, lack of funds is what it is,” said Rodeo President Dick Coffin. “I wanted to thank all our sponsors and all the people that have supported the rodeo throughout the years.”
Without the support of sponsors and volunteers, the Rodeo Board would never have been able to put on a rodeo, Coffin said.
This year’s fund-raising events, a donkey basketball game and a silent auction, were lightly attended, Coffin said, and the organizers were unable to raise the money necessary to operate the rodeo.
“At our last meeting, I said if we’re within $5,000 by June 1, we’ll continue,” Coffin said. “If not, we have to pull the plug.”
The rodeo would have relied on ticket sales to cover the remainder, he said.
The rodeo costs approximately $35,000 to put on, Coffin said.
“This year we came up well short of that. I don’t have $30,000 in my pocket, but if I won that $300 million jackpot, we’d have a rodeo.”
The rodeo has a little more than $4,000 for this year’s event, Coffin said. He is mailing back all of the funds provided so far by sponsors. The money from the fund-raising events will stay in the rodeo’s account for a possible event next year.
Coffin may organize a bull ride or something along that line he said. “Next year, we’ll try again.”
A new event may not be held the same weekend, Sportsman’s Holiday, he said. It depends on contractor schedules, and with the rodeo canceling, they’ll be booking that weekend.
It may be tough restarting the rodeo, Coffin said. “We may not be able to start this rodeo back up again.”
Coffin has volunteered with the rodeo for 27 years, he said. “I had a blast. I enjoyed putting it on. It was a lot of work, a lot of political BS, pretty much. We put it on for fun. We enjoyed putting it on.
“When we see the people having fun, that made us feel good that we put something on for the community. It’s seeing our town have a good time at the rodeo. That’s what made it worth it. None of us got paid. We’re all volunteers.”
Any money the event ever made always went back into the community, Coffin said. The rodeo made Christmas baskets one year, and it sponsored 4-H groups.
Its mission was to start rodeo programs for Sweet Home youths and provide a place for equestrian gaming and 4-H shows.
The rodeo started some 69 years ago in Crawfordsville as the Calapooia Roundup, although From our Files on page 4 indicates that there was a rodeo as early as 1920.
“It’s a shame to see a piece of history go away,” Coffin said.
The Rodeo Board is remaining intact for now, Coffin said.
Coffin pointed to Sisters, a small town with a big rodeo.
“Here you’ve got a small town that got behind their rodeo 100 percent,” Coffin said. “People go from all over the valley to Sisters Rodeo. If this town got behind the rodeo, we could be just as big as Sisters.”