Woodward, Okla. — The Woodward Tourism Committee approved a total of $10,000 in grants during their August monthly meeting Thursday afternoon.

The committee awarded two $5,000 grants to help cover advertising costs and plump up prize money for 2 agricultural contests.



NORTHWEST OKLAHOMA SHOW PIG CIRCUIT

The first grant was awarded to the Northwest Oklahoma Show Pig Circuit (NWOSPC), which had originally requested $6,500 to help fund 4 hog shows to be held over 2 weekends on Dec. 31-Jan. 1 and Jan. 29-30.

Committee member Bob Jones said he knows the shows would bring people to Woodward to stay in our hotels because “when they had it in Alva last year, a lot of people stayed here in Woodward because there’s not enough hotel rooms in Alva.”

Jim Curtiss, executive director of the Woodward Tourism and Convention Bureau, said that is one of the reasons the NWOSPC decided to hold the 4 shows in Woodward this year.

“It’s a pretty big deal; they’ve outgrown Alva and wanted to come here,” he said, noting that a total of 2,400 people are anticipated to participate throughout the 4 hog shows.

Nevertheless, Curtiss said, “I feel $6,500 is too much.”

The committee members agreed and voted to support NWOSPC with $5,000 instead, which as committee member Kris Day noted was enough “to cover their expense to have it here in Woodward.”

The grant will go to help cover a $400 rental fee for the county fair barns, an additional $900 listed for show expenses such as judges fees, and $400 that NWOSPC said it planned to spend on advertising.  The remainder will go toward add-on premiums, which will help encourage more participation.



5M TEAM ROPING

The second $5,000 grant was awarded to Rusty Munsell with 5M Team Roping which is planning a competitive roping event for the weekend of Oct. 2-3.

While Munsell failed to note how much he was requesting in a grant application previously submitted to the board, he told the committee Thursday, “I think $3,500 minimum for it to be successful.”

He said $1,500 would be used for advertising and the other $2,000 would provide added prize money in the contest.

With personal knowledge of rodeo and roping events, Day said “in my experience with open ropers, if you have added money on an event, they’ll drive pretty far; it’s nothing for them to drive up to 7 hours or so.”

She explained that the additional prize money is added to prizes given out from entry fees “so the payoff is more lucrative for the ropers” and thus more enticing.

As far as Day was concerned, the roping event sounded “basically the same” as the pig shows as far as necessary costs.   So she felt 5M Team Roping should receive an equal grant.

“They’re the same except in one you’re just leading pigs around and the other you’re chasing cows around,” she said before making the motion to grant the roping event $5,000 as well.

Day also noted, “I think this has the potential to eventually bring just as many people as the pig show.”

However, Munsell said for this year’s event he is only expecting “around 150 ropers per day, plus they’ll bring their family members.”

With the way the event is scheduled, Munsell noted in his grant application that participants will likely spend at least 2 nights in Woodward’s hotels.



FUNDING FOR BULL RIDING EVENT

In addition to approving $10,000 for the pig show and roping grants, the committee officially voiced their support for a Championship Bull Riding (CBR) event set for Sept. 18 that comes with a $30,000 price tag.

Curtiss said that as a city project sponsored directly by the tourism department, the CBR funding did not have to be approved by the committee with an official vote.

However, he said he would like it officially noted whether the committee agreed with the event in an advisory sense, as he would like the committee to have “a more influential role” in the actions of the tourism department as a whole.  So instead of just learning about the funding that is going into projects like the CBR event and the Windy 100 earlier this year after the fact, Curtiss said he felt the committee should have their voice heard as the decisions to hold those events are made.

In regards to the CBR event, committee chair Gary Goetzinger said, “it’s a good project.”

Day added, “Go for it.”

However, she said she would like for the committee’s grant budget to reflect that while the $30,000 was taken out as initial start up money to get the CBR event going, that the tourism department is receiving that money back with sponsorships and ticket sales.

“I don’t want it to look like to the public that we’re running rampant here,” she said, referring to the fact that it is only the 2nd month into the new Fiscal Year and the committee only has a total budget of $120,000 for grants.

“Since the $30,000 for the CBR is coming out of our contributions to others budget, then I think the proceeds we get back from it ought to show up back in this budget,” Day said.

Curtiss told the committee Thursday that the $30,000 has already been “almost completely replaced by sponsorships and ticket sales; we’ll probably even make a profit on it.”