Grovetown’s first city-sponsored rodeo will start Friday night, and all the money visitors spend will go to help disabled veterans and children.
In addition to the bull riding and barrel racing competition, there will be inflatable bounce houses, face painting, a climbing wall, a mechanical bull and pony rides. At 6 p.m. Friday country singer Tanner Fussell will play, and at 7 p.m., there will be a contest for best dressed little cowboy and cowgirl. The rodeo is Friday and Saturday night.
Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the gate.
Grovetown Mayor Gary E. Jones attended a rodeo last year in Thomson. When he learned it was a fundraiser for a program to help veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) and children with special needs, he decided he wanted to bring the event to Grovetown.
“I personally feel like that’s the least we can do. We don’t do enough for our veterans now,” Jones said. “And children with special needs, they deserve everything we can give them.”
The city donated the use of Liberty Park, and city workers prepared the area for the rodeo, putting up lights and fencing. The city will not take any money from the ticket sales, Jones said.
“I predict we’ll have 3,500 to 4,000 each night. Because they had about that many in Thomson,” Jones said.
The rodeo is organized by three men with years of volunteer service – Chris Smith, a former firefighter who lives in Thomson; Al Reeves, a former law enforcement officer who lives in Harlem; and David Speight, an Army veteran who lives in Waynesboro.
Smith runs Old Frontier Outreach in Thomson and has run six rodeos to raise the money to build a heated and air-conditioned equestrian facility with trainers experienced in pairing veterans and disabled children with horses. He has helped children with his program and expects his first veteran with PTSD to begin in June.
“When we do a program with a veteran, it’s no cost to him,” Smith said while cooling off in the shade during Thursday’s busy set-up at Liberty Park, 1040 Newmantown Road.
“Our vision is to roll into a community and put on a good family event. We want to give an experience to the family so they don’t just sit and watch a rodeo,” Smith said. “Now they’ll know that 25 miles from here there’s a riding center that helps veterans and children with special needs.”
One of the family-friendly booths is run by James “Peanut” Copes, 61, and his wife Laurie Copes, 49, of Pioneer, La. They have a genuine chuck wagon where they cook up cowboy beans in giant cast iron caldrons. They expect to feed hundreds Friday night. On the menu: cowboy beans, fried cornbread and cobbler. Price: free.
“God told me to feed his people, and that’s what we do,” James Copes said as he set up his canopy and cooking gear.
The couple crisscross the country going to rodeos and other events handing out small Bibles with a picture of a cowboy on the cover. They live in a 39-foot horse trainer that has been converted to haul the wagon, with a small air-conditioned living quarters. The whole kit is pulled by a 1985 Peterbuilt truck, which is old, but strong and has plenty of life left, James Copes said.
When the rodeo is over the couple have one more even to attend and then will get back to Louisiana for the birth of their sixth grandchild.
On Friday night right after Fussell sings, the city will honor a life lost when they present a plaque to the family of Allen Transou, the Grovetown city councilman who died of COVID in November 2020, Mayor Jones said.
For tickets and information about the rodeo go to https://www.rodeoticket.com/american-hero-pro-rodeo/rodeo-information.
Joshua B. Good is a staff reporter covering Columbia County and military/veterans’ issues for The Augusta Press. Reach him at joshua@theaugustapress.com
