Contestants gear up to conquer Miss Strathmore Stampede title

Miriam Ostermann
Times Associate Editor

 

Three eager and spirited young women are attending fundraisers and meeting various communities in preparation for competing in five different categories during the Strathmore Stampede, in hopes of grasping the title of Miss Strathmore Stampede.
After a 15-year hiatus – with a queen being appointed in 2012 until 2015 – Strathmore created the Stampede Royalty Program Committee and held a contest for the position last year. Continuing on with the tradition, Strathmore local Shelby Stout, Cayley Peltzer, and Lindsay Newman hope to represent Strathmore in the upcoming year.
“We attend fundraisers and events to put ourselves out there and talk to the community,” said Stout, who took part in 4H for nearly a decade.
“Strathmore is my home town. I’ve grown up here my whole life, I’ve gone to school here, I know tons of people here through 4H, and I think it’d be really special if they had someone that they knew. The other girls would be great too; they are so nice. We all have fairly similar personalities… it’s been a lot of fun and I’m really excited to get to know them a lot better.”
All three contestants travelled to Didsbury on June 12 to attend a fundraiser, and will be expected to participate in five categories adjudicated by three judges over several days during Strathmore Stampede weekend. The contestants will have a chance to impress the judges with their horsemanship, impromptu speeches, personal interviews, written exams, and the fashion show. While all three participants are confident in their horsemanship, they are brushing up on their knowledge of rodeo history and information on Strathmore and the area. Having ran for the title of queen herself at a young age as well as organizing a queen contest for five years in Camrose previously, chair of the Stampede Royalty Program Committee Judi Wilson, is excited about the contest this year and continuing the tradition.
“There is nothing like a beautiful girl on a horse that draws people’s attention and when she goes to all these different venues, whether it’s the Ducks fundraiser or whether it was our Cowgirl Cattle Company, where she’s representing Strathmore,” said Wilson.
“It brings Strathmore itself into the limelight, but even more so it brings rodeo, our Strathmore Stampede, into the light.”
The committee received eight applications in total of hopeful contestants vying for the opportunity to take the crown, which will be relinquished by the current queen during the rodeo performance. In contrast to last year, the committee decided to remove the public speaking component and introduce an impromptu speech aspect where questions will be drawn out of a hat at the fashion show. Newman who held the Amateur Rodeo of Central Alberta title for Rimbey Rodeo Princess in 2015, said she looks forward to possibly representing a pro pageant featuring chuckwagons, visiting with different community members, and educating the public on rodeos. With just over a month to go until the event, Peltzer. who is completing her agriculture business diploma and pursuing an animal health tag education, is preparing herself for the opportunity to represent the rodeo she attended each year since a young age.
“I’m really excited to possibly represent the Town of Strathmore and the Strathmore Stampede, so I’m looking forward to the opportunities that it has,” she said. “We’ve just kind of been here and there, but it’s getting down to the nitty gritty now and it’s time to pull up our socks and see who has it.”