Special Kids Rodeo an annual feel-good

The Tri-State Rodeo gets into full gallop this week. That means Lisa Wood spends a Saturday morning wrapping up the Special Kids Rodeo, something she’s been part of for almost a full quarter century.
I’ve talked to Lisa every year on the dirt of the C.E. “Eddie” Richards Arena as hundreds of kids and adults with special needs get to take part in a rodeo of their own.
I watched as a young lady was carefully placed on the back of a horse. Two volunteers help set her in the saddle, while another volunteer leans on the left side of the horse to keep it perfectly still. Yet another volunteer rubs the horse’s nose and face softly, confirming that this is a good thing and there’s no need to panic.
Then three other volunteers walk the lady in a helmet around a makeshift ring on the south end of the arena. The lady in the saddle reaches forward because she wants to pet this brown animal that is taking her for a ride.
Craig Kelly, the MC of the event for almost as long as Wood has been running it, talks in the background to whomever he can wrangle to the microphone. Several rodeo queens, including Danville’s Olivia Freitag, wander around the arena helping with events like roping and barrel racing and simulated bronc riding. They wear sashes and western attire and hats and are made up like full size cowgirl dolls.
But everyone here rides side-saddle to the folks that get to break out of the confined lives they have to live through no fault of their own.
Mike McCampbell of the Walton Group Home of Burlington said the Special Kids Rodeo is definitive for its residents who have been coming to the event for years.
McCampbell is a former student of Lisa Wood and knows her commitment to folks with special needs.
When asked if the event was the day the residents look forward to the most, McCampbell said, “Without question. That’s why we’ve been coming here for years.”
McCampbell stood holding water while Beau Butterball, a resident of the Walton Group, rode a barrel that simulated a bucking bronc. Butterball whooped and hollered as volunteers worked roping that caused the barrel to “buck".
Wood said a change this year is that in addition to t-shirts and lunch, all the participants are getting cowboy hats to keep.
I met with Wood again this year and we kind of stumbled over the conversation because she’s done this so many times and is so good at it, there’s nothing really anyone doesn’t know.
As you walk around this ground that seems to become more hallowed every year, you can actually feel the energy of these people who are in a western paradise. It’s their very own two-hour amusement park of sorts, and the visceral reactions of the folks that make the trek to Fort Madison on the Saturday before Labor Day is heard throughout.
They get their faces painted, and now they don a brand new cowboy hat.
The other heartwarming part is the volunteers, sometimes two to a person, that accompany these kids and adults through the arena and to each station. Spending their morning doing God’s work strikes a chord.
The fact that there isn’t anything new to report other than free cowboy hats is a testament to the resiliency of the heart of Wood and Kelly, and the volunteers, and the Tri-State Rodeo Committees current and past, parents and the participants themselves. COVID was the only thing that stood in the way of this celebration, and it barely did.
Wood said the faces are familiar and have been and it’s one of the most wonderful things about the event.
Yeah. Nothing should change here, and hopefully nothing ever will. So, I don’t mind walking up to Lisa year after year on a warm Saturday morning that teases the autumn and saying, “Well, what’s up.”
And with fall comes football and the tree in front of my house turning hot pink. It is my favorite part of the year, especially when the windows are open. I think I’ve said this before, but fall is the exhale after the heat of summer and I’m all about exhaling right now – but that’s Beside the Point.
Chuck Vandenberg is editor and co-owner of Pen City Current and can be reached at Charles.V@PenCityCurrent.com.