La Pine’s weekend full of fun, fundraising

La Pine was busy over the weekend with three events: La Pine Frontier Days, the La Pine Rodeo, and the Fill the Boot Drive.

Frontier Days is a celebration that has been going on for close to 100 years in La Pine.

It’s termed “The Glory Days of Early La Pine,” and things started off Saturday morning at 10 a.m. with the lawnmower race.

The celebration really gets into high gear throughout the week.

But on Saturday, there was plenty of activities and vendors to look at.
Later Saturday evening, there were two interesting events: the Sagebrush Rock Beard and Moustache competition and the men’s Beautiful Legs contest.

La Pine Frontier Days President Ann Gawith says she loves everything about the celebration.

“Every piece of it,” Gawith said. “I’m a people-watcher. I love to see where people come from, where they are visiting us from. I love watching them have a good time.”

On Sunday there was a dutch oven cook-off, a talent show and karaoke.

Later in the week, there will be a woodcutters jamboree.

On Monday and Tuesday evening, a new radio melodrama titled “Johnny Justice to the Rescue” will be performed.

The celebration all started with the founders of La Pine coming together on the Fourth of July and throwing a barbecue and potluck.

Coinciding with the Frontier Days this weekend was the 2012 La Pine Rodeo.

Kicking off at Saturday afternoon, NewsChannel 21 was there earlier as the RimRock Riders, a drill team, were practicing their skills.

The rodeo is now in its ninth year. Events include all the traditional rodeo fare; bareback riding, barrel racing, bull riding, calf roping, steer wrestling and team roping.

Mikeala Koellermier last year was a RimRock Riders princess, which is part of a club organization. But this year, she’s the rodeo queen.

“This has just been a blast,” Koellermier said. “I’ve never met as many nice people and friendly people, made a lot of new friends.

“And to me, all this means is being a good representative and putting yourself out there and shaking hands, giving the kids a good smile and helping them out, because it’s the world for them to be here.”

Koellermier said she was always a shy little girl, but the opportunity to be rodeo queen has helped her to get out of her bubble. She said she looks forward to more rodeos in her future.

For those attending both the Frontier Days and the rodeo, you may have noticed quite a few La Pine firefighters holding their boots up.

They were asking the community for any change or money to help support the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Every year, the La Pine Fire Department meets at the corner of First and Huntington Road during the Frontier Days.

The money raised helps fund research and provide services to children affected by neuromuscular diseases.

“It’s kind of fun — you get to meet a lot of people,” Capt. Mark Pautz said. “A lot of people support it. They are really thankful. They really appreciate us being out here, and it gets us out in the community.”

Pautz said the La Pine Fire Department raised the most money in Central Oregon last year for the Fill the Boot drive, $6,800. This year, they were hoping to surpass that goal and get to more than $7,000

Last year, firefighters nationwide raised $24 million for the MDA.