COCHRANE— The Cochrane Lions Club Rodeo has officially been cancelled, due to both safety and financial concerns, according to the organizers.
The decision was announced via a press release issued by the Cochrane Lions Club Rodeo Board on Wednesday (July 29).
“If you ask the residents of the local area what the Cochrane Lions Rodeo means to them, they will undoubtedly say ‘spirit,’” says the release.
The spirit of the west is what started the rodeo in 1966, it says, and it’s what continues to carry it on today.
“We have been watching the development of the pandemic closely. We waited until the last possible moment to make the call, as we were hoping to be able to provide Cochrane with its largest annual community event and the spirit it brings to the town for the Labour Day long weekend,” said Kevin Firkus, co-director of the rodeo. “In the end, we decided, in order to better assist the community in preventing the spread of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), this year, the Cochrane Lions Rodeo will be in spirit only.”
Firkus said the decision was a difficult one for the rodeo board to make, but one that was necessary to protect everyone involved.
“We had a meeting with the town and everything, and it was a very difficult decision. We all believed that we needed some kind of economic impact, and something good to happen in the town just to lift everybody’s spirits.”
He said that after examining the health regulations and the financial investment involved with hosting the rodeo, public health guidelines would not allow enough people into the event to make it financially viable.
“The cost wasn’t worth the gain,” he said. “The age of our guys are all in that high-risk area from our club. If we ended up with just one case, it’s not worth it in our opinion.”
On a typical year, the organizing committee would have had to put security deposits down in June and July, but many of the companies involved offered extensions, due to the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We didn’t need to put out any money until the middle of August,” he said. “There was no way, even if we ended up doing everything. Our costs would have been astronomical, and we would rather take our money and put it to use with community services and different things. There are a lot of people in town that need help right now and we figured that we would change everything around to help more people out.”
The Lions Club Rodeo Board is now looking at a few alternative options in lieu of the rodeo that will keep the spirit of the west alive and well in Cochrane, and give Cochranites a reason to celebrate.
“We believe that we made the right decision and we’re going to do some things to keep the spirit going between now and that weekend as well,” he said.
Firkus said before he could elaborate on what the replacement events might be, he and the rest of the organizers had to look at public health guidelines to ensure that those events will be able to go ahead. He added that the announcement regarding the new events could come as early as next week.
