Cowboy Day ’12 held Saturday at Freedom Park

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

The Eighth National Day of the Cow­boy was cel­e­brated last Sat­ur­day, July 28; and mem­bers of Sun­bury Hal­ter & Sad­dle 4-H Club held their fourth annual recog­ni­tion of the pio­neer­ing men and women, pop­u­larly known as cow­boys, that helped estab­lish America’s frontiers.

Sun­bury Hal­ter & Saddle’s past venues for the cel­e­bra­tion had been JR Smith Park in Sun­bury, but last year they found a new home – Sunbury’s Free­dom Park on Ohio 61, behind Sun­bury Church of the Nazarene.

The word cow­boy brings dif­fer­ent images to each indi­vid­ual, but the National Day of the Cow­boy web­site notes that the cow­boy arche­type tran­scends gen­der, gen­er­a­tions, eth­nic­ity, geo­graphic bound­aries and polit­i­cal affil­i­a­tion; the word cow­boy embod­ies hon­esty, integrity, courage, com­pas­sion and deter­mi­na­tion; and the cow­boy spirit exem­pli­fies patri­o­tism, strength of char­ac­ter and stewardship.

Saturday’s cel­e­bra­tion at Free­dom Park included games, chil­dren and adult con­tests, cow­boy poetry, a rop­ing demon­stra­tion, an his­toric reen­act­ment of the Bat­tle of the Lit­tle Big Horn by 4-H Club mem­bers, and a potluck dinner.

This year, instead of door prizes, each per­son brought an item for a sol­dier that Lisa, Evan and Lau­ren Thier­gart­ner will send to sol­diers through the club’s August Sol­dier Com­mu­nity Ser­vice Project

“We had a great turnout,” Allen said. “I think it was a fun day for the club’s chil­dren and their families.”

For addi­tional infor­ma­tion about The National Day of the Cow­boy go to < http://www.nationaldayofthecowboy.com/ > .

Code of The West

While there are many ver­sions of the Code of the West, one of the best known is from James P. Owens’ book Cow­boy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West:

• 1. Live each day with courage.

• 2. Take pride in your work.

• 3. Always fin­ish what you start.

• 4. Do what has to be done.

• 5. Be tough, but fair.

• 6. When you make a promise, keep it.

• 7. Ride for the brand.

• 8. Talk less and say more.

• 9. Remem­ber that some things aren’t for sale.

•10. Know where to draw the line.

Did you know that:

• Cow­boy tra­di­tions have been part of the Amer­i­can land­scape and cul­ture since 1523.

• The cow­boy con­tin­ues to be an impor­tant part of the econ­omy through the work of approx­i­mately 656,500 ranches in all 50 States.

• The annual atten­dance at rodeos exceeds 30,000,000 fans worldwide.

• The Bat­tle of Lit­tle Big Horn (a.k.a. Custer’s Last Stand, Mon­tana. June 25–26, 1876) was called the Bat­tle of the Greasy Grass by Native Americans.

• The Pony Express began in St. Joseph, Mis­souri, tak­ing 10 days to deliver mail 2,000 miles away to Sacra­mento, Cal­i­for­nia, in the sum­mer and 12 to 16 days for deliv­ery of mail in the winter.

• The Pony Express Com­pany had 80 rid­ers who would carry the mail and deliver it to the next of the 100 sta­tions along the way using 400 to 500 com­pany horses.

• The fastest recorded deliv­ery by Pony Express was 7 days and 17 hours to deliver Pres­i­dent Abra­ham Lincoln’s Inau­gural Address to California.

• The National Day of the Cow­boy has been cel­e­brated in Iraq and Afghanistan by United States troops, on the Inter­na­tional Space Sta­tion, and in coun­tries around the world where men and women mount horses and tend to ranches.

Posted by Gary Henery on Aug 1 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.