For what could be the first time in 33 years the annual pancake breakfast and parade were not held in conjunction with the Sundre Pro Rodeo this year, with the rodeo itself being postponed for the first time in its history.
Sundre's Chamber of Commerce officials say they are hoping to postpone the parade along with Sobeys free pancake breakfast to the Bulls & Wagons weekend in August.
“There will be no emergency services because they're tied up with other issues because of all the flooding,” said Marty Mennear, the chamber's president on Friday, June 21.
“We can't put on the parade without any emergency services. If anything was to happen, we have to have those emergency services,” he said.
Heidi Overguard, member of the chamber of commerce, said she received a call from Town of Sundre officials Friday morning.
“We had been contacted by the Town of Sundre that our community is still under emergency alert, and that if we were to continue with the parade we wouldn't have any access to emergency services and town staff to man barricades, which they normally do,” said Overguard, Friday morning.
Sobeys pancake breakfast was cancelled because of the numerous evacuations in town.
“The attendance wouldn't be there. But there is other issues with the flooding right now and I felt it was important that people should worry about the flooding rather than the pancake breakfast,” said Mennear, a day after parts of Sundre were evacuated due to flooding.
As for the rodeo, only the calf roping slack event was held Friday before rodeo officials cancelled the event for similar reasons. Officials are postponing the rodeo to a tentative date of August 23, 24, and 25.
“We've got to sit down with the Canadian Pro Rodeo Association (CPRA) and the committee members. It's going to be a delicate conversation because we've got the sponsors and we've got to take a lot of things into consideration,” said Scott Smith, president of the Sundre Rodeo and Race Association, late Friday morning.
He said Town of Sundre officials encouraged the rodeo association to cancel the event.
“Our concern is should things become worse, how are we going to get all of the participants out, as well as all of the spectators,” said Sundre mayor Annette Clews, early Friday afternoon.
“Because the reality is, if it's the Red Deer River that can cause the issues, what do we do? Because there is the potential right at the bridge but there is also the potential upriver, so that would pretty much limit their exit to Highway 22,” she said.
The CPRA shared similar concerns, leading to the rodeo association making the call to cancel, she said. It is the first time since she moved to town 15 years ago that the rodeo has been cancelled.
“From a mayor's perspective, the protection of the lives first is important to me, so I recognize that that needed to happen,” she said.
“From a rodeo enthusiast, I am very disappointed that because of our situation it had to be cancelled. It will be the first time since I moved here in 1998 that I'm missing the rodeo.”
“At this point those are days that we've put forward to the CPRA and the PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association),” said Smith, yesterday morning.
“We now need to get their blessing, they need to get back to us and confirm that their board approves that weekend,” he explained.
He said the decision was tough for the rodeo association's committee to make and that he hopes the tentative new dates will work for everyone.
“At this point what we've done is we've spoken to our sponsors, we've spoken to some of our stock contractors and we believe that that will be the best weekend for us,” he said.
He said this is the first time in history that the Sundre Pro Rodeo has been postponed, but that it made sense to do so.
“Our committee felt that in the safety and the best interest of the animals and for the cowboys that it would be prudent not to run the rodeo and run the risk of having any injuries,” he said.
There aren't many rodeos that are generally cancelled because they are such a big operation, he said.
“To advertise and promote and you've got your stock coming and you've got cowboys coming from the states and from across Canada, it's really tough to postpone it,” he said.
The rodeo association's financial status is “not great”, he said, and if the rodeo is not able to run at all this year, there will be no money for next year's rodeo, he said.
“The big problem is that we want the CPRA and the PRCA to give us the green light on those days, because we've got sponsors that we have to notify, we've got to work with the town,” he explained.
“We've got to work with a lot of our contractors, whether they're the midway or whether they're the concession people or the feed people, there's so many stakeholders involved in this thing, it's really complicated because we're not sure we're going to be able to get everybody back onside,” he said.
The midway was all set up and ready to go, including the committee's BS bingo, the whisky tent and the cabaret, he said.
“Once the decision was made, everything kind of started to come apart right there, the sound system was pulled apart, the video board was pulled apart and the stock started to be reloaded onto the stock trailers. The cowboys were making plans to move on to the next rodeo and the midway, they started to dismantle the midway,” he explained.
The committee was disappointed because of all the work that was put in to get this year's rodeo ready to go, he said.
“We're trying to find a weekend where all of the stakeholders don't have conflict because of course they all go on to other rodeos and fairs and other obligations and now we're scrambling to find a weekend that's going to work for not only us and for the town, but for everybody,” he said.
“We're looking for continued support and understanding from the fans, the sponsors, the contractors, the CPRA and all the other stakeholders that are involved,” he expressed.
“We would ask that they understand the circumstances and continue to show their support when we're able to announce the new dates.”
