The Calapooia Roundup and Rodeo provides a family activity for the community each night of Sportsman’s Holiday weekend.
“We do it not only for the love of rodeo but for the love of this community and try to create a family activity,” rodeo court adviser Kelly Kem said.
The Calapooia Roundup and Rodeo runs Friday through Sunday.
Gates open Friday at 5 p.m. with the rodeo beginning at 7 p.m.
Registration for Play Day begins at 8 a.m. on Friday, and events begin at 9 a.m. Events will include barrels, keyhole and flag race along with two other individual events and two team events, ribbon race and wheelbarrow.
The five individual events provide good practice for the upcoming Linn County Fair, Wanda Wolfe, a rodeo volunteer and organizer said. The events will go on all day long and are open to anyone with a horse. Entry costs $15 all day or $3 per event. It is free to watch.
At about 3 p.m. or 4 p.m., rodeo volunteers will begin clearing out the grounds for the evening rodeo. The rodeo will include the popular calf scramble and mutton bustin’ events for children.
Beginning around 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Roughstock will provide music at a dance.
Saturday, concessions stands and the rodeo grounds will be open all day, until rodeo gates open at 5 p.m. for a 7 p.m. performance.
“We have got a ton of vendors this year,” Wolfe said. “I know there’s just hordes of vendors supposed to be here this year.”
Following the Sportsman’s Holiday Parade, the annual Logger’s Olympics begin at 1 p.m. at the rodeo grounds.
Sunday slack time begins at 7 a.m. followed by cowboy church with Pastor Jeff Batchelor at 10 a.m. The rodeo starts at 2 p.m. with gates opening at noon.
“The grounds look really good,” Wolfe said. “I can’t express thanks enough to a long list of volunteers. I just want to make sure all of our sponsors, all of our volunteers, know how much we appreciate them.”
With the work of rodeo volunteers and now the volunteers of other organizations, the number of events at the rodeo grounds is going up.
It will be open to 4-H and community use, Wolfe said. The Oregon Jamboree is also going to use it for parking and camping.
“We are a nonprofit organization,” Wolfe said. “We look totally for sponsorships. If we make any money, that money is carried over for next year as well as put into Christmas and Thanksgiving baskets (among other charitable uses).
“It takes our community to put on an event like this, and we want to give back to the community.”
The rodeo committee also plans to use profits toward scholarship programs. In the past, scholarships were given toward the Sportsman’s Holiday Court.
The event itself is for “kids of all ages,” Wolfe said. It’s a family atmosphere, “where they don’t feel like they have to spend a lot of money.”
Admission is $8 at the gate, free to children six and under. Family tickets are $25 for the day.
For information or to purchase tickets early, persons may call 367-5451.