By Joel Langton
The 830 Times
Del Rio’s Rotary Club put the finishing touches on the 19th edition of the Independence Day Rodeo.
The two-night annual event is held around the 4th of July holiday every year, and cowboys and cowgirls come in from around the region to compete.
Inside the arena, the winners can be determined by a fraction of a second. These are the winners from this year’s events.
Bareback
Jasper Farris and Wyatt Williams – 77 points
Saddle Bronc
Cash Sellman – 66 points
Bull Riding
Chaiton McIntosh – 72 points
Ranch Bronc
Josh Jaskina – 83 points
Tiedown
JB Collins – 10.91 seconds
#10 Tiedown
Eddie Dever – 10.10 seconds
Breakaway
Gracie Greene – 3.66 seconds
Team Roping
Casper Ringelstein and Maverick Lazono – 5.33 seconds
The Rotarians are a good-hearted bunch, but they don’t put on the event just to give people a chance to compete in Western events. It’s a fundraiser that funnels the money from the mid-year celebration back into the community.
Other key numbers:
18 — Number of previous rodeos and this was number 19
5,500 — Number of rodeo fans came out to enjoy the two-night event.
800 — Number of Rotary burgers peddled to hungry fans
Nearly 100 — Number of volunteers worked together to pull the event off
$25,000 — Amount of scholarships given to 25 graduates in 2024 that Rotary awarded this past year, the majority funded by the two-day rodeo that takes a year of preparation. A large chunk of the scholarships are funded through the rodeo.
360 — Number of days, give or take five, until the next Rotary Rodeo
“This isn’t a for-profit venture,” said Tony Hernandez, past Rotary president and long-time volunteer at the event. “You look at the scholarship, Rotary Pocket Park or Rotary Village, and just about every cent we make as part of the rodeo gets poured into our community.
2 — Every year, there is an incoming and outgoing Rotary president helping manage the event. Mike Coplan was the outgoing president handing the reins over to Abram Rodriguez, who’s already prepping for next year.
“Thing is, we pull this off with the community’s support every year and we could never do it without the fans coming out or the people who just want to help,” said Rodriguez. “This isn’t just a rodeo, this is the community coming together to make Del Rio better.”
The writer can be reached at JoelaLangton@gmail.com .
