By Daniel Evans
The Selma Times-Journal

A slight rain and a little mud did not prevent local cowboys and cowgirls from participating in a fundraising event for the Alabama Youth and Junior Bull Riding Association on Saturday.

In hopes of raising enough money for new timers, the association’s co-organizers, Jimmy and Pam Boswell, put on an event that featured bull riders of all ages.

“This is a jackpot. We are trying to raise money to buy a set of timers. We’ve been having to borrow them and they are about $1,200,” Pam said. “We found a place that would sell them to us and give us a discount because of what we do. This is just a jackpot event to raise money to buy those timers for our association.“

Nache Boswell won the calf competition with a score of 72. Brandy Harden won the girls’ bull-riding competition with a 69.

The Boswells have been doing events like this for nearly three years now.

“We started doing this in September of 2010. We had been hauling our little boy to Florida. There wasn’t anything for youth here in Alabama like this other than high school and junior high,” Pam said. “We started a little something different. We’ve been doing them ever since. We average about one rodeo a month. We do Cowboy Church and dinner once a week at our house.”

Most of the time, between 40 to 65 participants show up for each event, depending on the weather.

“We are just trying to teach these kids that they can ride bulls and run barrels and do that all that and still love God and still be right with him,” Pam said.

Jimmy says that the sponsors for the event, Holly’s True Value and Selma Trophy, made Saturday’s event possible.

“These kids come around and ask for sponsorships. Without the sponsorships, these kids couldn’t go down the road. We take them to Colorado for the national finals and the pro boys are going to Memphis (Tenn.),” Jimmy said. ”We are a part of some big associations. We had a kid here last year, Caleb Cooke. He went out there out of 449 bull riders and came in tenth in the world. We are looking for big things this year.”

The Boswells said since the association started, Selma has been tremendously welcoming.

“We just want to thank Selma for letting us be here and supporting us,“ Jimmy said

A lot of help is still needed for the association to get its participants to the youth finals later this year.

“We took seven kids with us last year to Colorado, to the youth finals. We will probably take 10 or 12 this year. A lot of these kids will need help, like sponsorship help,” Pam said. “We rent a van. We had one kid that went out to north Alabama and raised all the money for the van. We have to have gas. We have to have motels and they have to eat. If anyone is interested in helping some of these kids, we would love to hear from them.”

Anyone interested in getting involved with the association can call the Boswells at 874-6640.