Superior Lions Club continues to improve annual rodeo
SUPERIOR - Twenty years ago the Mineral County Fair Board asked the Superior Lions Club if they could help revitalize the rodeo.
Prior to the Lions Club agreeing to get involved, the rodeo was a very different place – around 20 people would stop by the grounds, have a hamburger and soda and then go home. However since that day 20-years ago, the Superior Lions Club has worked to make the event a cornerstone of summers in Mineral County.
“It’s what keeps Mineral County going,” Superior Lions Club Rodeo Chairperson Guy Gould said.
When the club took over there were only stands and chain-link fencing at the grounds.
“Some of the guys got together with John Carpenter from Kalispell,” Gould said. “He came down and he said ‘we can put on a rodeo down here for you’ and he became our first contractor.”
Gould added that Carpenter was instrumental in getting supplies to the fair grounds so that the Superior Lions Club could build stables and other structures for the rodeo. These supplies helped the rodeo blossom.
In an effort to continue to renovate the wood arena that was built 20-years ago, the Lions Club has worked with residents and businesses throughout western Montana in order to complete the project estimated to last three to five years.
This year, long time supporter of the rodeo Carl Tyler Chevrolet donated a brand new cattle shoot to the rodeo.
“It’s pretty easy for outlying communities to be forgotten by Missoula businesses,” Jason Nordberg said. “We like to show our support for them and this was a great way to do it. So many of our employees are on the pro-rodeo circuit so we knew what to get them.”
After transporting the new shoot to the fair grounds, members of the Lions Club installed it and the rodeo is one step closer to complete renovation.
On top of providing a weekend of activity for residents and visitors to the county, the rodeo has also enabled the Lions Club to fundraise through the selling of advertising and beer. Money from the rodeo goes directly into the club’s general fund – where more often then not it ends up helping the community.
“It gets utilized back in the community,” Gould said. “We help with Women in Timber, we have a scholarship fund and we buy eye-glasses for people who can’t afford them.”
The club also made sure that there was a free family oriented night at the rodeo – this year it will take place on Thursday with a wild cow milking contest and other activities – in order to give the community a night of free entertainment.
“The way the economy has been the last couple of years, people are strapped,” Gould said. “It just lets them come out, you still have to pay for your burgers and beer but everything else is free.”