By Jean Schurman
On January 14, 2017, a new Miss Rodeo Montana was crowned. Sarai McCollaum of Darby became only the second valley resident to attain that crown. The last one was Lori Dodge of Stevensville in 2004.
For the next year, McCollaum will travel across Montana and beyond, promoting the PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) at rodeos from Ekalaka to Plains. She will visit schools and hospitals, conventions and more rodeos. Her first official event is actually in Florida at the Arcadia Championship Rodeo. She will make a hospital tour as well as be at the rodeo. Her year will finish in Las Vegas in December at the Miss Rodeo America pageant where she will compete.
There aren’t a lot of funds available for the upcoming year so McCollaum and her friends and family are putting on a gala to raise money. The event will be on March 18th at the First Interstate Building at the Fairgrounds.
The pageant was in Great Falls at the Montana Pro Rodeo Circuit Finals. It was a grueling four-day event with the contestants being scrutinized every waking moment. The contestants need to be knowledgeable about rodeo and professional rodeo in particular. They must have a very good knowledge of horsemanship and be able to ride very well. In addition, they need to be aware of what is going on in the world and are questioned on that during one segment of the competition. Through it all, they need to share their love and knowledge of rodeo and the western way of life. The four actual categories they were formally judged on were horsemanship, which included a written test on rodeo and horsemanship, appearance, personality, and projection/presentation. Both formal and informal interviews were held with each category being scored up to 25 percent of the total score.
McCollaum’s journey to the pageant has been anything but usual. In 2014, she competed for the Rockin’ RC Rodeo queen title at the Ravalli County Fair. She felt very confident going into the competition. But she didn’t win. “I was very discouraged,” she said.
McCollaum said she didn’t think she would ever compete in a queen contest again and would concentrate on her horses and working instead. But a young friend from Darby, Reece Conner, encouraged her to try again. McCollaum said, “She looked up to me and I didn’t want to let Reece down.”
With Conner’s encouragement, as well as that of her mother and stepdad, Tara and Scott Boulanger, McCollaum decided to try again for the title of Miss Rockin’ RC Rodeo. She said the competition this time was tough and prior to the coronation, she didn’t think she did very well. However, in the end, she was crowned the queen at the Ravalli County Fair in 2015.
Then, last summer, at the urging of Samantha Manley who is a former Miss Missoula Stampede and a friend, McCollaum entered the Missoula Stampede pageant, and won. Although she planned on competing for the crown of Miss Rodeo Montana, she was planning on doing it in 2018.
Most queens take a ‘practice’ year, to see what is required and that was what she planned. She had a thought about entering on October 15th, but that was the deadline to enter and she figured she was too late. Then the state director called to say that the deadline had been extended for two days. McCollaum called her mom and told her, “I am doing this.”
She had to quickly sell two pages of ads for the circuit finals program, send in her birth certificate and her voter’s card. The voter’s card is a requirement of any queen candidate in the Miss Rodeo America program, no matter what state. The organizers want to make sure the contestants and ultimate queen is well versed in current events and an active citizen as the queen will be the face of rodeo and will encounter all walks of life.
With the entry sent off, McCollaum said it was a whirlwind of preparation. There were the gowns – some leather with embroidery, the outfits for horsemanship, interviews, get acquainted mixers and modeling. She had outfits from her other competitions but she had to find someone to alter some and add ‘bling’ to others. And, unlike traditional beauty pageants, boots, hats, and belts had to be incorporated into the line up, too.
Although she has ridden since before she could walk, she worked on her horsemanship. Her background of 4H, junior and high school rodeo, as well as riding for Larry Townsend and others gave her the confidence to tackle the patterns and work on the questions in the written horsemanship test. Of course, anyone who was at the Rockin’ RC Rodeo last year may remember her ride when her horse started bucking just after entering the arena. That was captured by a photographer and went viral.
She worked on interviewing and modeling with her ‘crew’ consisting of her mom, Teresa Roberts, Robin Conner, Trudy Davidson, and Kay Greeley, grilling her on current events, modeling, and presentation.
With her entourage in tow, McCollaum headed to Great Falls where she modeled, spoke, rode and answered questions. Contestants were not allowed to have their phones nor did they have access to a computer but McCollaum said she didn’t even notice, she was so busy. There was also a rodeo queen clinic for the younger set and Conner, and 2015 Rockin’ RC Rodeo Little Miss Ryan Grover were also there, learning the ropes.
McCollaum went into the awards ceremony with the knowledge that she had given it her all. “I have learned not to be too prideful and just work hard.”
Her hard work paid off. She won the personality, appearance and horsemanship awards, and ultimately, the crown of Miss Rodeo Montana. And who was right there to celebrate with her, Reece Conner.