Photographs courtesy of Tammi Kudra Edmonds with story by Rodeo Committee VP Jill Satterfield
COARSEGOLD – The Coarsegold Rodeo was a great success this year. As I look back over this year I can’t help but feel gratitude toward the many wonderful people that I have had the pleasure to meet and work with.
This is my first year as a Board member and it was quite a learning experience for me. There are so many people to thank.
Click on photos to enlarge.
We have a wonderful mix of people on our Board, people from all walks of life, not to mention our committee members. Each of them played an important part towards the success of this event.
One of the issues we did have this past year was getting people to come out and help us with our work days. I do need to say that a family showed up, out of the blue and the Dad, Donney Linderholm, became our “knight in shining armour.”
I can’t speak of this rodeo without mentioning him and his wonderful family. Donney was at the Rodeo grounds every day the week before the Rodeo and without us even asking him took it upon himself to do what needed to be done. When I say this man was our hero, I mean it!
We also need to say a big thanks to the Gibson twins, Cody and Cory, who were at our beck and call. These young men exemplify what our youth should be like.
A couple of standout moments for me this weekend were presenting our Grand Marshal Katrina Sack Templeton, who was representing the Sack family, with a gift from the Board. We presented a plaque to her in memory of her brother Tom Sack, whom I considered a good friend, along with a pendant for Katrina and one for her sister Jana Sack.
Another standout for me was the Kid Rodeo Clown contest. We only had 3 participants this year, but look forward to a much larger participation in the future.
We had a great turnout for the dance! Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. We had a performance from Clifton Jansky, along with music from our DJ, Terry Naracon.
One of the crowd favorites is always Mutton Bustin’ – and no one was disappointed there, except for the little ones that didn’t win the buckles! Better luck next year, kids!
The bulls were big, tough and ready, and so were the broncs. We owe a big shout out to Rockin M Productions for once again providing us with great stock, along with Holbrook Bucking Bulls, for all their support, especially Jennifer Simons! That woman is non-stop!
A big thanks to Tom and Lois Bohna for once again allowing us to use their property to make this all happen.
We had a really good turnout, considering there were many other things going on that weekend. We have several new ideas for more audience participation next year.
We were disappointed at the last minute by not having Indian Tacos there, but that couldn’t be helped. That did put a lot of stress on our other food vendors and I know that was an issue. Sorry folks, it won’t happen again.
Yosemite High School’s Badger Football team was in attendance helping us with the gates and the trash. They receive all the money from the recycling for the weekend, along with a predetermined amount we give them.
Minarets’ Mustangs Basketball team was out in the parking lot directing all of our visitors and they received part of the money from the parking.
The goal of the Rodeo Association is to help the youth of Eastern Madera County.
We donate money to all the 4-H and FFA kids that apply for our grants with bump bids for their entries in the Madera Fair, along with many other youth groups that have applied for assistance through our grant program. The grant application is available on our website. We look forward 
to helping out any of our youth that apply.
Finally, I need to say a big Thank you to Sandy Unruh, who did a wonderful job with the Royalty contest.
She was on top of everything, going above and beyond her duties to get this rodeo done. She took this on with a full heart and cared about each of the contestants as if they were her own.
Well, we’ll close the book one this year and look forward to the next one!
For copies of photos email Tammi.
