ABC Pro Rodeo raises $1 million for Boys & Girls Club over 80 years

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - The ABC Pro Rodeo has raised more than $1 million for the Lubbock Boys & Girls club over the span of 80 years.

So this ain’t the Boys & Girls Club’s first rodeo. The ABC Pro Rodeo was created for these kiddos 80 years ago when it was just called the Boys Club.

“The reason that the rodeo started originally was because they wanted to go ahead and do a specific fundraiser for the Boys Club,” Tom Vermillion, the Executive Director of the Boys & Girls Club, said.

The first rodeo in 1943 was three years after the Boys & Girls Club started. Vermillion says that money was used to help push the club out of the gate, originally used to build brick and mortar buildings.

Now, the money is used to keep the club operating. Vermillion says the goal is to keep kids age six to 18 out of trouble.

“A lot of the juvenile crime rates go up directly after school,” Vermillion said. “So, from that three to eight o’clock time period, that’s when a lot of the actual crime happens as far as in the city of Lubbock.”

But it’s not just a fundraiser for the kids, it’s a chance to see cowboys and cowgirls in action.

“Each year we give them a t-shirt and we take them out to the rodeo, and they get the opportunity, because a lot of our kiddos normally don’t get to do that,” Vermillion said.

Vermillion says memories made at the rodeo won’t gallop away anytime soon.

“I have actually had adult alumni from the Boys Club talk about they still remember getting their t-shirt when they would go to the rodeo,” Vermillion said.

Vermillion says he’s grateful to those who put the rodeo on for riding side by side with the club year after year.

Copyright 2023 KCBD. All rights reserved.