2018 Spring Fling
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EVANSTON — To kick off another summer of rough stock and roping, the Evanston Cowboy Days Committee held its annual Spring Fling on Saturday, June 23.
The event hosted a generous amount of glitz and glamour as well as hype for the upcoming PRCA Rodeo over Labor Day weekend. The four young women vying for the crown of Evanston Cowboy Days Queen, along with two contestants competing for the title of princess, modeled western clothing from the local Boot Barn as well as posh western dresses.
The committee thanked the Mackey sisters, Falynn and Bailee for their year of service rendered to Cowboy Days as the rodeo’s 2017-18 queen and first attendant. At the end of the evening, Kassidy Jones was announced as Queen of the 2018-19 Festivities. Her attendants are Abigail Larson, and second attendant, Mikilie Sims.
Morgan Hansen won the title of Princess and Destiny Swensen is her first attendant.
“They’re taking home $6,000 to $7,000 worth of prizes.” said Shane Pace, who is on the Evanston Cowboy Days Committee.
Among those prizes were Montana Silversmith buckles and photography sessions.
Pace said of the young women’s role in Evanston Cowboy Days, “The queens go to all the different functions and they take our name and share it with everybody and get people hyped up about our PRCA Rodeo that’s coming up here in a few months. They go to all the parades within a hundred miles of here.”
Evanston Cowboy Days Chairman Dustin Matthews said the event has a bright future ahead of it this season.
“The way I project it right now, it is looking like we can maybe pay our bills before ticket money even starts,” he said.
Started in 1936, the queen represents one of the longest running PRCA Rodeos that every year draws contestants from all over the nation to Evanston who come to win money as the PRCA Rodeo season comes to a close. Every year since 1936, with the exception of the war years from 1943-45, there has been a young beauty chosen to reign over the festivities.
“They are our first line of defense. They are what Cowboy Days represents — the beauty, the riding, the emissaries for Cowboy Days,” said Cowboy Days Historian Sharon Fearn Rufi.