Home » Sports » Rodeo Culture » The Cowboys and Cowgirls Behind the Chutes: Cheyenne Frontier Days Volunteers

The Cowboys and Cowgirls Behind the Chutes: Cheyenne Frontier Days Volunteers

© Diana Rowe Martinez

Rodeo cowboys offer life and limb for the excitement of the eight-second ride, but what about those behind the chutes sweating alongside the cowboys without the promise of a large purse? Volunteers might not risk their life, but they certainly offer up their own personal sacrifices of time. Eight seconds to a Cheyenne Frontier Days™ (CFD) volunteer is a drop in the bucket of time contributed in the name of CFD.

Known as the "The Daddy of 'em All", Cheyenne Frontier Days is the world's largest outdoor rodeo of its kind. You can mark your calendar each year as CFD is always the last full week of July. Thirteen paid office staff, including an executive director, and nearly 2,500 volunteers labor diligently all year to see the culmination of their yearlong plans unfold in nine fun-filled, activity-jammed days. Activities during Cheyenne Frontier Days include rodeos, top-name music entertainment (like country singers Chris LeDoux, Clay Walker, and Brooks & Dunn), Western Parades featuring antique carriages, pancake breakfasts serving 10,000 hungry visitors, Native American Indian Village, Western Art Show and Sale, United States Air Force Thunderbirds aerial performance, authentic Chuck Wagon Cook-off, carnivals and more.

Months before the excitement even begins, thousands of hours behind the scenes are invested in making this event a success. This rodeo organization flourished for over a century to garner the moniker of “Mardi Gras in Rawhide” and its world-renowned reputation. How? Volunteers, plain and simple, and Frontier Days has grown to be a powerhouse of volunteers ages ranging from teen to senior citizens.

This might not seem much of an accomplishment until you start looking at the numbers. In 2000, the 50,000 Cheyenne population soared for nine days to include an estimated 300,000 rodeo fans. About $25 million in annual revenue is generated by Frontier Days for Cheyenne and the state of Wyoming. More than 1,600 contestants will compete in the rodeo this year for a purse of over $750,000, the largest purse in the professional rodeo circuit. A win at Cheyenne goes a long way in sending a rodeo cowboy to the National Finals in Vegas.

Volunteerism may not have started with CFD, but this organization is certainly a prime example. From the General Chairman to the ticket taker, every Frontier Days’ volunteer has an important role to play at the world’s largest outdoor rodeo and western celebration, an event hosting PRCA cowboys and WPRA cowgirls from all over the country and an audience that fills the dedicated $10 million complex. These men and women often plan their vacation time, and sometimes, their life around this annual nine-day event, as ushers, gatekeepers, sound technicians, stock handlers or timers of bucking events and more--they do it all. Some CFD volunteers are locals; others come back to Cheyenne from such places as North Carolina and Nevada to work the show. This is their rodeo, and without these volunteers, there would be no rodeo.

The copyright of the article The Cowboys and Cowgirls Behind the Chutes: Cheyenne Frontier Days Volunteers in Rodeo Culture is owned by Diana Rowe Martinez. Permission to republish The Cowboys and Cowgirls Behind the Chutes: Cheyenne Frontier Days Volunteers in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.