Immediately I began to think of something I could do to help Stacey and her family. I knew that the hospital bills would be never ending, she would need to go to school to learn how to regain her mobility and complete all of the other training she would need to be able to regain her confidence is world that she could no longer see. Being the barrel racer that I am, I immediately thought of a benefit barrel race. So right away I put everything together, had a presentation with Stacey and other family for what I had planned and everyone was quite excited for, what I had called, the SEE NO EVIL Benefit Barrel Race. There was one problem though, I had no idea how to actually host one of these races! I had no equipment, no computer software, no nothing and no knowledge. I asked around and got some responses but there was always a problem here or a problem there so I basically shelved the idea until the right time came along.
Recently at a local benefit called "Somebody Help The Boy" I was racing at I heard a loud speaker announcement after the race. Charmaine Newkirk with CM Productions basically said, if you know someone who needs help, and want to host a benefit, let me know! And "There's your sign"....I knew right away this was my opportunity to make this happen. Finally, the SEE NO EVIL race could possibly happen! After talking with Charmaine, she said let's give it ago. So I hit the road running, pulled out all of my prep work from so long ago and went to work.
My plans for this race where going to be a little different than I had planned. Recently I had been blessed to take Dreaming of Three's Rodeo Kid Dominique McAllister to his very first rodeo at the Stockyard's Championship Rodeo on March 9, 2013. Dominique, whom many of you know, is an 11 year old boy whom last year was diagnosed with Leukemia. He and his father live at the Ronald McDonald House in Fort Worth, Texas where he receives treatments 3 days a week. Dominique's father, Billy, travels from Abiline to Fort Worth frequently as his other two children live in Abiline, so he has been unable to find a job who is willing to accommodate his families needs of traveling. I had been, as well, trying to think of ways to help raise money for Dominique that could raise enough to actually make enough for his family. Nothing seemed to be big enough to help...until now! It was divine intervention that everything was coming together all at once in harmony to help both of these extremely deserving families who quite unfortunately have hit harder times than most of will ever have to go through.
So for about the past week I have endlessly been putting plans together to make this race a huge success. Salt Creek Arena is the chosen venue, as it is locally convenient for everyone and the date has been set for May 11, 2013. We have already received some MAJOR product sponsors for the silent auction including Absorbine, Heritage Brand, Mane 'n Tail, FORCO, Cowboy Magic and many many more. We have been blessed with our largest sponsor yet to be able to award the 1D Champion wit a HIDEZ Travel & Recovery Compression Body Suit, which retails at $600.
HIDEZ is an equine full body suits that helps rid the body of lactic acid build up so your horse does not get sore and increases blood flow to the heart, among many other great things it does. These are brand new to the US and I am thrilled that Matthew Spice, the owner and inventor of HIDEZ, is allowing me this opportunity to introduce this revolutionary product to the US and barrel racing industry.
We will also be awarding Trophy Leather Cuff Bracelets to the Division Champions, as well as a 10lb pail of FORCO, which is specifically designed to have your horses digestion track at optimum working condition. There will very likely be even more added to the Champion Division Awards.
