Let's Rodeo!
Lions week kicks off with annual parade
By SHARON KERR Staff Writer

More than 150 floats followed by 12 trail rides are expected to start lining up as early as 3 p.m. today, May 9, for the 61st annual Jasper Lions Club Rodeo parade, according to parade chair Lloyd Persons.

Judging starts at 4:15 p.m. and the parade begins moving down Main Street and around the courthouse square at 5 p.m. Weather is predicted to be 70 percent partly cloudy (but only 10 percent chance of rain), temperatures in the low eighties, and humidity at 51 percent.

Tickets for the four night performances are still available from the ticket office next to Baskins on Wheeler Street in Jasper. Themes and performers are:

May 9 - "Family Night" with Tailor Made Band

May 10 - "Join the Lions Night" with John Conley

May 11 - "Justin Cowboy Crisis Fund Night" with Keith Anderson

May 12 - "Tough Enough to Wear Pink Night" with Heartland

"Pink Enough" chair Darlene Nolen said cancer awareness and cancer survivors will play a large part in this year's rodeo celebration.

Survivors will march in the parade May 9 and be recognized in the arena May 12. Saturday is the night to wear pink and red, pink for the cancer benefit, and red for Coca Cola of Beaumont who is sponsoring the night.

Last year the Jasper rodeo joined the "Tough Enough to Wear Pink" campaign, which became a national sensation by selling chances on pink cowboy hats to raise money for cancer research; in Jasper, the campaign earned $2,000 for the Julie Rogers "Gift of Life" fund.

Mike Lout, owner of KJAS, won the hat and surprised the committee by donating it back for another drawing this year. Chances are on sale for $5 each. The winner will be drawn during the survivor recognition program Saturday night.