CGRA Newsletter

December, 2011

The Beginnings Of CGRA

The boys from Denver saw an unbelievable mass of gay humanity coming together in Country/Western celebration. A couple of groups from San Francisco introduced Square Dancing (The Foggy City Squares), clogging (The Barbary Coast Cloggers) and a line dance called "Kaw-Liga." Rose Maddox belted out a theme that the gay community dearly loved, "Stand By Your Man." Everywhere you looked, the Pride of Texas was in front of you with great looking T-shirts and loads of enthusiasm. The Texas group had raised nearly $40,000 for Muscular Dystrophy and their Miss candidate even won the title of Miss Reno National Gay Rodeo.

At the closing party in a jam-packed room at the Sands Hotel, the newly crowned Miss Reno National Gay Rodeo (Miss Texas) came face to face with Wayne Jakino. He couldn't move left or right and felt compelled to congratulate Miss Texas. She responded, "Thank you, and where are ya'll from" Jakino said he was from Denver and Miss Texas chided, "Well, ya'll might as well of not shown up from all we have seen of you." Jakino let his mouth overload and snapped, "Yeah, but check us out next year!"

Excited about the Reno weekend, Ron Jesser asked John King if Charlie's would allow a group to meet to talk rodeo. The first meeting saw Jesser, Jakino, and seven other men commit themselves to form the Colorado Gay Rodeo Association (CGRA) and return in force to Reno.

In just a little over a month, on September 13, 1981, the new association elected its first officers, with 42 people present, and made its first public appearance at a community fundraiser that evening. Jakino was elected Founding President and his memory burned with the taunting he had received from Miss Texas. It was now "Reno or Bust!" time. It should be noted that the argument over placing the word "gay" in the name of the association had raged for a month before the election and for two months following at every bylaws ratification meeting.

Founding membership was held open on December 1, 1981 and hit 94 founding members. Thereafter, membership continued to climb. Surprisingly, no one in this new Colorado rodeo group owned a horse!

The next ten months were frantic and filled with enthusiasm. When August of 1982 rolled around, 270 CGRA members and over 150 supporters wearing shirts emblazoned with the slogan "Colorado Rides With Pride" arrived for the Reno National Gay Rodeo! This time they even had horses! The entourage included the first mounted gay drill team, the Mile High Square Dancers, the Denver Country Cloggers, candidates for the Mr., Ms., and Miss titles, and 43 rodeo contestants, which comprised two-thirds of the contestants for that rodeo.

And this is now our 30th year.

Mary Munger

See complete versions of many past rodeo programs on GayRodeoHistory.org

Stand By Your Man

Sometimes it's hard to be a woman
Giving all your love to just one man
You'll have bad times
And he'll have good times
Doin things that you don't understand
But if you love him
You'll forgive him
Even though he's hard to understand
And if you love him

Stand by your man
Give him two arms to cling to
And something warm to come to
When nights are cold and lonely

Stand by your man
And show the world you love him
Keep giving all the love you can
Stand by your man

Stand by your man
And show the world you love him
Keep giving all the love you can
Stand by your man

Vice President

Hello from your VP!

Thanksgiving has come and gone and December is just around the corner! I hope that you all had an incredible Thanksgiving spent with family, friends or those special people in your life. As we are getting into the Christmas season, I hope that each and every one of you are filled with that special feeling that Christmas brings to me. I know this is going to be a very busy time but I hope that I can count on each of you to help CGRA celebrate a couple of important CGRA events.

On December 2, 2011, CGRA will be hosting the Past Royalty Show at Charlie's Denver starting at 8pm. We will be honoring our past CGRA Royalty teams and watching some of them perform for us. We will be raising money for the Wayne Jakino Scholarship Fund that evening. Please come out and help us raise money for this great cause.

Then, on December 3rd, also at Charlie's Denver, CGRA will be hosting the CGRA Royalty Contest and A Night of Sharing. This will start at 7:30pm and will not only include the royalty competition for the 2012 Team but we will also be giving out funds to our Charity Partners. Please come out and help cheer on the new hopefuls for the 2012 Royalty Team as well as say thank you to Miss CGRA 2011 Tracey Lee Saunders and Mr. CGRA 2011 Rocky Buruse as they step down and pass the torch to a new team.

Looking forward to seeing all of you out and about, but especially at the two events mentioned above.
Cowboy hugs!

Rich Valdez
CGRA Vice President
email address removed

Secretary

CGRA Membership Meeting - October 14, 2011

Called to Order at: 8:11pm

Motion to approve the minutes: Rich V., 2nd Dale K., Carries

President: Robert Thurtell

• Presented BOD Summit motions/resolutions to GM:
  1. Cost not to exceed $100 per for 10yr award buckles
  2. Destroy ballots from last BOD election
  3. CGRA will pay hotel cost for one night at convention for delegates & alternates
  4. Purchase 10yr IGRA buckle for Bianca
  5. Replace lost RMRR29 women's Bronc buckle for Tom L.
  6. Set theme for RMRR30 poster contest, "Colorado Rides with Pride"
  7. Provide a certificate for 2 RMRR30 tickets for Bearfest gift basket

Vice President: Rich Valdez

• Recognized Gia D. and Paula S. for meeting their fund requirements for Miss & Ms.
• Rocky's turnabout show and John B.'s show set for Oct. 22
• Dec 2 has been set for the Past Royalty Show; Dec 3 has been set for CGRA Royalty Comp & Night of Sharing - Rich reviewed schedule
• Tracy raised $1000 for PAWS Colorado this year
• More judges needed for royalty comp - see Rich V.

Secretary: CD Slusser

• No report

Treasurer: David Hill

• Motion to approve the Financial's: Paula S, 2nd Dale K., Carries
• Monies have now been replaced in the Wayne Jakino scholarship fund

Trustee: John Beck

• Convention delegates: John B., Robert T., Rich V., Kim F., Kimberly K., Ty T.
• Convention alternates: Rocky B., Don M. Room for 3 more alternates
• Finals buckle winners: Stef C. - flags, Teeny B. - chute dogging
• John would like to nominate Jeff Barber, St. Anthony's Ambulance Service, and Stacy Showalter & Cindy Plampin (sp?) for special IGRA recognition

Public Relations: Dan Rutledge- absent

• Apologies for late newsletter

Rodeo Director: Mary Munger

• Announced Rodeo Committee meeting on Nov. 19, 11 a.m. @ Hamburger Mary's

Entertainment: Tommy Channel - absent

• No report

Fundraising: Rocky Buruse

• Looking for Valentine's Extravaganza (Feb 2, 2012) committee help
• VE meeting set for 10/19, 7pm @ Charlie's
• CGRA will provide a gift basket for Bearfest

Rodeo Events: Kim Fry- absent

• Robert gave a brief discussion of what's in the works for upcoming year - gymkhanas & roping

Membership: John Hill

• Discussed greeter/ambassador program, meeting set for 10/26 - time and location tbd
• Outstanding renewals for 3rd Q
• Big year for recruitment - members can help with talking up CGRA
• Matthew Cowling new member, Donna Coulon & Chris Moore back & reactivated

Community Outreach: Pauline Chavez

• 10/22 opening of Club Pure (old Tequila Rose)
• Congrats to Rocky B. going for an IGRA title
• Reminder on 11/11 show for Vets by 10 yr. CGRA anniversary team

Royalty: Tracy Lee & Rocky B

• Tracy's "She's Back" show on Oct 1 @ Charlie's helped Gia and Paula S cover their fund raising requirement
• Tracy also schedule 'thank you' show @ Compound on Nov 5

Special Committees:

• Vince M - 30 tickets remaining for National Western Rodeo, $17 each - please pay promptly

Old Business:

• Work progressing on new on line store app.
• Current Charity Partner nomination
  1. Project Angel Heart
  2. PAWS Colorado
  3. American Cancer Society
  4. Jeffco Search & Rescue
  5. Matthew Shepherd Foundation
• New noms: Howard Dental- Chris H., Women's Bean Project - Rocky B., Rocky Mtn. Arts Association - Rich V.
• Rich V. talked about RMAA and mentioned Wayne J. received the Robert Moore Community Service Award from them prior to his passing. This is the highest honor RMAA gives.

New Business:

• none

Announcements:

• Nov. 11, Ten Year Royalty show @ Charlie's - Salute to Vets
• Rich Valdez - Out Loud Concert coming up, 11/18 & 19
• Wish Me Away, Chely Wright documentary on 11/4 - does CGRA want to attend as group?
• Can we move November meeting to Thursday, Nov 3 to accommodate above?
• Robert T. will email members for more response
• Thom L. brought Finals programs - program was sponsored by Thom and Frank H.

Meeting adjourned @ 8:59pm

CD
Secretary email address removed

Trustee

I just wanted to let all of you know that Louisiana Gay Rodeo Association was reseated this year at Convention. Other than that nothing new has come up. IGRA University is again set for Jan 13 - 15 in St. Louis, MO. @ the Crowne Plaza.

John Beck

Public Relations

Wow, what a great month November was for CGRA. If you missed attending the Chely Wright event on Nov 4th. Wish Me Away. I personally was blown away sitting in a church filled with gay men and women and straight supporters. The film brought a few tears to my eyes. I was sad to hear that a country music singer had been shunned by her world, just for finally being honest as a person. It was an honor to be in the same room with Chely Wright. She is an amazing person, one who I look up to. Starz Denver was awesome, welcoming CGRA to the Red Carpet that night. If you have not seen the pictures of CGRA on the Red Carpet you need too. OutFront Colorado did a wonderful job making sure they caught us. CGRA had a huge group of peeps there that night. Robert Thurlell, Jeremy Snidow, Ken Pool, Rich Valdez, Stephanie and Jeff Curtis, Rocky Buruse, Tracey Lee Saunders, John Beck, Bruce Gros, and myself. I know I have missed a few people and for that I am sorry, please forgive me.

Congratulations to Rocky Buruse for bringing home the Red sash as Mr. IGRA 1st Runner Up.

CGRA was asked to present colors for ICRME for Snowball 2011. I as a member of CGRA was amazed and very humbled to stand and watch CGRA present colors. To watch as the flags were marched up the runway, folks it was simply breath taking. What a great night for CGRA. On hand that night for colors were, Robert Thurtell, John Beck, Tracey Lee Saunders, Rocky Buruse, Kim Fry and Jeremy Snidow. You folks Rocked.

I hope that each and everyone of you had a wonderful Happy Thanksgiving and were able to spend the day with great friends and family. Now that we start to look at the Christmas holiday. I want to encourage you all to attend the CGRA Past Royalty show at Charlie's on Dec 2nd, and then return to Charlie's on Sat Dec 3rd for A Night of Sharing and Royalty Competition. I know these two nights are always a lot of fun and a great way to show the community just how much pride CGRA has. Personally I want to wish John Beck, Gia Diamonte and Paula Scougal the best of luck in the journey to become Royalty for 2012, our 30th anniversary year.

I also want to encourage you to come out and help CGRA take over Charlie's on Dec 6th. Folks we need bartends, bar backs, Dj's, coat check, and doormen. If you can spend a few hours with us that would be great. This has always been a great night of fun and great way for CGRA to earn some extra funds. I hope to see you there.

Wishing each and everyone of you a wonderful Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year.

Colorado Rides With Pride
Dan Rutledge
Public Relations Chair 2011
email address removed

Rodeo Director

Progress is being made with the Rodeo Director duties, and I hope I can secure everything necessary before mid March. My work schedule is drastically changing March 18th, so my goal is to get as much accomplished as possible before hand.

Thank you to those folks that were able to attend the Rodeo Committee meeting, as well as the great ideas that were forwarded. I am working on sharing those ideas with the Board Of Directors, as there are many chair position functions that can benefit with the shared information.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN PURCHASING A COMMEMORATIVE BUCKLE, PLEASE CONTACT ME ASAP!!!!!! I will be presenting a sample buckle, for RMRR 30th anniversary, when I get a proof from Gist. But for now, I need an idea of how many buckles to have made.

I wish everyone a safe and warm Holiday Season.

Ride With Pride!!!!
Mary Munger
Rodeo Director RMRR 30
email address removed

Membership

Happy holidays, everyone! I hope that each of you are taking the time in the midst of all the holiday chaos to spend time with those people that mean the most to you. First, a shameless plug: if you need a gift idea, I would like to suggest maybe getting somebody a year's membership to CGRA as a gift. Also, if your membership expires in December, you can now renew your membership to carry you through the end of 2012. For those of you using credit cards, I'm pleased to announce that CGRA members can once again renew online via ShopCgra.com. Big thanks go out to those folks who worked to bring online memberships back to CGRA.

I was fortunate enough to attend the IGRA Convention in San Diego this past month, and have several pages of notes regarding ideas I picked up from folks representing other associations. Along with being an Alternate for the Convention, I also participated in several committee meetings including the Social Media group. Laura Scott from NGRA said it best when she stated that word of mouth is the most important form of social media. When I brought up our proposed Greeters program, several people from other associations expressed interest in rolling out this program at the local and international level. Needless to say, eyes are now watching CGRA to see what we do with our Greeters program.

We had a Membership Committee meeting on November 17th, and unfortunately there were only two people in attendance. My thanks goes out to CGRA Trustee John Beck for coming and sharing some ideas, but we need many more people to become involved to make the proposed Greeters program a success. I will have a sign-up sheet to pass around at Charlie's for the December 9th General Membership meeting, but for those of you who can't make it, please just shoot me a note expressing your interest and I will make sure you are included.

John Hill
CGRA-Membership
email address removed

Fundraising

Happy Holidays folks, I am planning several meetings for Valentine's Extravaganza 2012. This year the event will happen on Feb. 11th 2012 @ Charlie's Denver. I will be sending out a full meeting schedule next week. If you are interested in helping be a part of it please contact me and we will put you in touch with the chairperson for the area of the event you are interested in.

The past royalty show is also coming up on Dec. 2nd and all proceeds will go to the Wayne Jakino Scholarship Fund. This is a very important event as it allows us to a show our appreciation to our past while also allowing us to raise money to help out someone in their future. I hope to see many of you there! Finally I am planning a few events after Valentine's Extravaganza that are going to be new and different. I have a few ideas but would love to hear what you would like to see. If you have any ideas please contact me at email address removed or call me @ 208-301-8227.

Thank you and I hope to see you soon,

Rocky Buruse
Fundraising Chair 2012
email address removed

Community Outreach

Hello Cowgirls and Cowboys

I hope everyone had a wonderful Turkey day, and now that we have had all the turkey and fixing we can eat ?? and still eating.

Let's get down to business with what is going on next month in your the Community.

Dec. 2nd - @ 7:30 pm - A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline - A Musical Tribute to Patsy Cline
Location - Hamilton Family Recital Hall, at the Newman Center for Performing Arts.

Dec. 2nd - Mr, Ms, Miss, CGRA Past Royalty Show @ 8 pm @ Charlie's, hosted by Lushus LaRell, and Janet Jenkins, special guest entertainer by Miss CGRA '86 Rosa Marie Sugarbaker, show benefitting the Wayne Jakino Scholarship Fund.

Dec. 3rd - Mr., Ms, Miss, CGRA Pageant, @ 7:30 pm @ Charlie's. Come watch - John Beck, Paula Scougal, Gia Diamante, as they compete for the title of Mr. Ms, Miss, CGRA 2012. We will also have a Night of Sharing where we give out our money we have raised during the year which will end with Mr. CGRA 2011 Rocky Burse, and Miss CGRA 2011 Tracy Lee Saunders Step down. It willbBe a night you won't want to miss.

Congratulations to Mr. CGRA 2011 Rocky Buruse on winning Mr. IGRA 2012 1st RU

Dec. 6th - Charlie's employees are having their Christmas Party, so come celebrate with CGRA as we take over Charlie's bar. We will be bartending and having a fun that night.

Dec. 9th - CGRA BOD Meeting at 6:00 pm, CGRA Membership Meeting at 8:00 pm. at Charlie's.

Jan. 21st - CGRA Night at the Stock Show - at 8:00 pm.
Tickets are still available to active members for $18.00 each for more information contact Vince Montez.

If you have any information or a fundraiser you want the members of know contact me at

Always in Service to the Community

Cowgirl Up

Pauline Chavez Community Outreach
email address removed

Royalty

Wow, has it been a year already? This one has been one heck of a ride. As Mr. CGRA 2011 I have had many opportunities to reach out to this community and I will say that it has always been a warm reception. I thank you for that reputation and the honor of representing you.

I do have a few people to thank for an such an amazing experience.

Robert Thurtell, when it came to needing anything from a horse to an ear you were always there and willing to lend a hand. It has been a pleasure getting to know you and I look forward to working with you on RMRR 30.

Clyde Mitter, you have inspired me to be my best and I know that your encouragement was one of the reasons I have succeeded this year.

Rich Valdez, my brother and mentor, I can never say thank you enough for everything. I can honestly say that without you, I wouldn't be where I am today. I am honored to know you and I hope that I have made you proud.

Dan Rutledge, everyone has someone that they have to follow and learn from. You are the example that I followed all year and challenged myself to be as good as. I hope that I have earned your respect this year as you have earned mine. We may not always get along but I know that you have always represented us well and I look forward to working with you now and in the future to build a stronger community.

John Beck, sir, there are few people with a reputation that I actually envy. Your name is synonymous with gay rodeo in Denver. I hope to be able to represent this organization over the years as well as you have. Thank you for the rides to all the rodeos and also for being there for every event. It was a privilege to be able to co-host your contestant event. I wish you the best in the contest and in the upcoming years.

There are many more people that I need to thank and I want to do that in person the Night of Sharing on Dec. 3rd at 7:30 pm @ Charlie's Denver. I hope to see you all and express my gratitude as I step-down as your Mister and also to congratulate the new Royalty team as they Step-up.

Thankfully yours,
Rocky Buruse
Mr. CGRA 2011

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