Fashion Show Cruise!

Cruise, you say? That's right... the S.S. Wrangler from the Red Wilk Cruise Lines embarked from The Orleans Showroom tonight with a BOAT LOAD of beautiful contestants in the Miss Rodeo America Pageant.

The master of the ship, Captain Creed Roberts, set the stage for each port of call. The contestants were divided into two groups. The first "port of call" was Mardi Gras in New Orleans, which featured all of the contestants modeling clothes from Wrangler. The second "Port of Call" was Viva Las Vegas, featuring contestants Alabama through Montana The third "Port of Call" was Aloha Hawaii, featuring contestants Nebraska through Wyoming doing a Hawaiian dance. The fourth "Port of Call" was the Mexican Riviera Fiesta and the first group of contestants came out with maracas and did the limbo. The final port of call was Rock 'n Roll in New York, and the contestants had sunglasses and pink guitars.


Captain Creed welcomed some special guests onto the cruise, including the pageant judges, the escorts: Mr. Berlyn Miller from Las Vegas Events, Mr. Joe Hertz - Wrangler Vice President and General Manager, Mr. Craig Errington - Wrangler VP of Consumer Marketing, and Kelly Baxley, from the MRA Scholarship Foundation.


Special entertainment was provided by MJ2 of Las Vegas. They are two sets of twins with wonderful voices, from Las Vegas - and ironically, each sets of Twins has one Mollie and one Jackie! You can find them on facebook, twitter, and myspace; and their new song "You Can't Say Love Enough" is available for download on itunes.


The contestants then came out one at a time, in alphabetical order by state, in their fashion show dress. This year, there were four black dresses, along with just about every other color of the rainbow. At the very end, Miss Rodeo America Maegan Ridley came out in a stunning floor-length black gown with gold trim, an off-the-shoulder dress that was complimented with her Landstrom's Original Black Hills Gold Jewelry and Crown atop a black hat.


The performance lasted approximately 90 minutes after which the contestants were able to come out and visit with family and friends.


The Fashion Show Committee and Sponsors deserve a special thanks for putting on such a great show!


Jeana Allen, NE - Production Coordinator
DeShanon Davis - Choreographer
Sponsors: Red Wilk Construction, Red & Cindy Wilk
Shumway Farms, Weekley Brothers/David Pro Rodeo, Miss Rodeo Florida Pageant, Miss Rodeo Oklahoma Pageant.

Rodeo Royalty Seminar Detail

The annual Rodeo royalty seminar was well attended this year by many of the state title holder ladies-in-waiting, along with many others. Maegan Ridley, Miss Rodeo America 2009 began the program by telling everyone a little about her experience competing for the title last year, and stressed that to be a rodeo queen you must become the "total package", and asked each girl to really get to know herself, and ask herself why she really wanted to be a rodeo queen.

New to the program this year was a presentation by Judy Rogers and Sherry Stickelman on fitness and health called the "Four Pillars of Strength" which gave terrific information for preparing and maintaining health for competition and during a year of reign, and that hopefully one would make the habits a life long lifestyle change. The women discussed nutrition, exercise, supplements and managing stress.

Tara Rowe, Miss Rodeo America Executive Board member and a pass Miss Rodeo America continued with the program and spoke about how important first impressions can be. She also stressed the importance of being responsible and maintaining a spotless reputation while holding a queen title. Another main point in Tara's presentation was the importance of studying before coming to compete at the national level.

Next, the seminar attendees were treated to a presentation by rodeo stock contractor, Mr. Ike Sankey. He provided valuable stock contractor insight as to what would be expected of a queen when she attends pro rodeos, and reminded them that as a queen, they are servants to the sport, and should act accordingly. He also spoke briefly about how to handle animal rights activist should the need arise.

Commander Deb Dilly was next up with a presentation about safety for young women who may be traveling alone. She gave many tips and instructions, along with a mini demonstration on self-defense techniques.

Kiki Shumway closed the program by giving excellent information on how to go about obtaining sponsorships, and the importance of being cordial, kind, gracious, and to make sure that sponsors realize your gratitude. She also talked about how to conduct yourself as a queen when giving both radio and TV interviews.

Lady-In-Waiting Social

Nineteen young ladies attended the Lady-in-waiting social hosted by Red & Cindy Wilk, Kathy Shumway & Kiki Shumway.

Each lady was presented with an official Miss Rodeo America Pageant contestant coat donated and presented to them by John Cavey & Pat Thompson.

Pizza and Bowling was enjoyed by all. At the completion of the social, each 2010 titleholder received a gift bag of goodies which was put together and presented by Kathy Shumway. This is such an awesome opportunity for the ladies-in-waiting to meet and get to know each other before their reign begins.

Top Horse Awards

During the Horsemanship Competition, two judges (Bobby Berger & Bobby Marriott) judged the horses which were provided by PRCA Stock Contractors, to select the Top Horse for an award sponsored by Absorbine.




Fourteen horses were provided by these Stock Contractors:

Bennie Butler

John Smith

Sparky Dreesen

Mike Cervi

Bob Barnes

Bronc Rumford




Each horse was ridden a total of 4 times. The judges' pick for the Top Horse, who will receive a check for $200 and a plaque, was horse #9.




#9 - "Chance" is owned by Chance Ramsay and Bronc & Kate Rumford. Chance broke the horse himself and was a cowboy and loved horses and rodeo, and competed in High School Rodeo. Chance, just 19 years old, was tragically killed in a ranching accident this past summer. While gathering a bull, the bull took Chance and his horse into a lake, where he drowned. Next summer, Bronc Rumford is putting on a high school "memorial" rodeo for Chance, and the funds from this award will go towards a Chance Ramsay scholarship that will be awarded.




Two other "finalist" horses were the #12 horse owned by Bob Barnes, and who won the Top Horse Award two years ago; and the #4 horse owned by Mike Cervi, a gelding called "Lily".

Rodeo Royalty Information Seminar

The Rodeo Royalty Information Seminar was well attended, with more than 50 participants this year, both ladies-in-waiting and rodeo queen hopefuls were in attendance.


In a three-hour period, participants were joined by a wide variety of speakers on different topics:

• Miss Rodeo America, Maegan Ridley spoke about the titleholder experience
• Jodie Witt, with the Denver Stock Show & Rodeo, spoke about attitude and behavior
• Judy Rogers & Sherry Stickelman spoke to the "Four Pillars of Strength" -(Food * Movement * Supplementation * Rest & Stress Management)
• Tara Rowe, former Miss Rodeo America, spoke on "What Every Queen Should Know But Might Not"
• Deb Dilley, Pageant Chaperone, spoke about personal safety issues
• Ike Sankey, Stock Contractor, spoke about the sport of rodeo
• Marjorie Murphy, National Director for Texas and MRAI Past President, spoke about drawing ticket promotion and selling your organization
• Kiki Shumway, MRAI Past President, spoke about public relations and getting sponsors

Speech Session & Media Interview #1

A large audience gathered for the first group of contestant speeches in the Orleans Showroom. Attendance is UP!


Maegan served as the official emcee for the event, and in between contestants, shared stories from her year.


Contestants giving their speeches today included:

Miss Rodeo Minnesota
Miss Rodeo Kansas
Miss Rodeo California
Miss Rodeo Virginia
Miss Rodeo Montana
Miss Rodeo South Dakota
Miss Rodeo Arizona
Miss Rodeo Washington

Following each contestant speech, the pre-taped media interview was shown. The girls did their media interviews on Sunday morning, immediately after check-in and before orientation.


The Media Interview questions were:


1. You just finished checking into the Miss Rodeo America Pageant. What events do you look forward to the most this week?

2. If you are selected as Miss Rodeo America 2010, what is one of the first things you will do?

3. Prior to coming to Las Vegas for the Miss Rodeo America Pageant, you spent 2009 promoting your state. What legacy do you hope to leave in your home state?

4. What advice would you give to a young lady who approaches you who is interested in becoming a Rodeo Queen?


As always, the speeches were clever, the outfits were stunning, and it was a great start to the speech portion of the competition. Two more mornings of speeches remain.

President's Breakfast

It was a packed house for the President's breakfast - which began at 8:30am Tuesday morning. Contestants and judges ate before the rest of the ticket holders came in, and as soon as everyone was seated with their meal, the program began.


After introductions of past MRA Presidents, MRA Executive Board, Sponsors, Guests and Judges, Marjorie Murphy was the auctioneer for two sets of National Finals Rodeo Tickets. The auction raised $900 for Miss Rodeo America, Inc.


The contestants lined up and began their current events questions - Miss Rodeo Missouri was the first to go, and Miss Rodeo Utah was the last. Questions covered a range of current events including topics such as:

• Do you feel the Cash for Clunkers program was successful?


• Should the "Balloon Boy's" parents be charged with child endangerment?


• What are the dangers or concerns with using Facebook or MySpace?


• Is the Going Green movement making a difference?


• Should the Government be in the health care industry?


• How will school district budget cuts affect our children's futures?


• Why do you feel enrollment for post secondary education is on the increase?


• Do you feel it's good or bad that the President took so long to decide how many troops to send to Afghanistan?


• What factors contribute to obesity in our youth and what can be done about it?

The contestants did FABULOUS with their answers this year - what a talented and sharp group of young women.

Scrapbook Awards were handed out - and there is a special blog post just about the scrapbook awards.

Miss Rodeo Alabama, Victoria Jeffcoat, was awarded the sales achievement award, for selling the most raffle tickets.

A 50/50 raffle was held and the proceeds will all be donated to Miss Rodeo North Dakota, Jessinta Hammer, who has just recently been diagnosed with Cushing's Disease and was unable to compete in the Pageant. We all send our thoughts and prayers to Jessinta today and wish her the very best and a speedy recovery!!

Thanks to everyone on the President's Breakfast committee for such a great job -chaired by Linda Ebest, TX and Nyla Bristow, CO. Also special thanks to the following state pageants who sponsored the breakfast: Arkansas, California, Kansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas.