Vittles for a queen
Lila Stacy beams as she realizes she’s queen of the rodeo at the annual Cowboy Breakfast Friday.
CHERYL SCHWEIZER/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
A roping contestant tries her best to take down that steer at the Cowboy Breakfast.
A barrel racer runs the course at Friday’s Cowboy Breakfast, the traditional kickoff for the Grant County Fair and Moses Lake Roundup.
A queen contestant answers a question from Jessica Cox during the Pee Wee Rodeo at the Cowboy Breakfast.
A contestant waits for the chute door to open during the bucking bronc contest at the Pee Wee Rodeo.
Running the barrels is a traditional rodeo event, and it was featured in the Pee Wee Rodeo Friday at the Cowboy Breakfast.
Determined rider and horse round the barrel at the Cowboy Breakfast Friday.
A confident queen contestant answers a question at the Pee Wee Rodeo during the Cowboy Breakfast.
With red hat, pink boots and pink horse, a bronc rider takes to the arena at the Pee Wee Rodeo.
Mom and daughter ride together in the bucking bronc event at the Cowboy Breakfast.
Volunteers manned the chow line at the Cowboy Breakfast Friday.
MOSES LAKE — Seven-year-old Lila Stacy began her reign as queen of the rodeo at the annual Cowboy Breakfast Friday. The Cowboy Breakfast is the traditional kickoff to the Grant County Fair and the Moses Lake Roundup; the fair begins Tuesday and the rodeo Thursday.
The breakfast is a community service project of the Moses Lake Kiwanis chapter, and for 2023 they got considerable assistance from Jessica Cox of Country Financial. Cox helped pay for the food and music, and ran the annual Pee Wee Rodeo.
“Honestly, it’s just giving back to the community,” she said.
It was her first year volunteering to help with the breakfast.
“I hope for many more to come,” she said.
The Moses Lake Senior Center cooked the biscuits and gravy, sausage and eggs, and volunteers did the serving.
Kiwanis president James Shank said breakfast is not a fundraiser, just something fun for the community. Any money left after the bills are paid is donated to the senior center, and the Kiwanis will make a donation to them regardless, Shank said.
The Pee Wee Rodeo provides the children with their own version of the ridin’ and ropin’ events, with an inflatable steer for roping. The children also ran the barrel race with stick horses. A couple of contestants decided they would run their own course around the barrels.
The stick horses were the bucking broncos too. One contestant explained that her brother really wanted to ride, despite his protestations that he didn’t. Being a good sport, he consented to participate because his little sister asked him to, the only entrant in the bull riding contest. (That featured the plastic steer from the steer roping, plastic cows being another of those adaptable breeds.)
Sometimes the children’s rodeo seemed like a good idea until it came time to get up on the stage in front of all those people. The prospect sent one of the steer ropers back to her mom — getting up on stage was a big ask. One of the bronc riders was willing to go on, but only with her mom’s help.
“That takes a lot of guts,” Cox said as mom and daughter finished their eight seconds. “Thanks, Mom.”
The queen contestants answered a question with the help of Miss Moses Lake Roundup Annabelle Booth.
Ted DeWitt, the breakfast co-chair, said business was steady throughout the morning.
“It’s been working great,” he said.
He credited the volunteers, the senior center cooks and Cox with helping breakfast run smoothly.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.
