Saco Fun Days: New Arena hosts first event, Funds raised for youth in need

The 2021 Saco Fun Days event presented the community and its neighbors a chance to witness its newest venue, a Rodeo Arena!

Saco Fun Days, started on Friday, September 3, and concluded on Sunday, September 5, and featured several events for those in attendance. Those events included a pot luck, Pippin DJ, and Karaoke, and cornhole tournament on day one.

"It's going great," said Lacey Beil of the Saco Chamber of Commerce. "We had a great turnout for cornhole."

The cornhole tournament featured 22 teams and brought in $5,000 during the Calcutta, 20-percent of which went to Tyler King, a young man from Glasgow recovering from injuries sustained in a vehicle accident this summer.

"We had 22 teams, which is more than we have had in four years," Beil said.

Saturday was kicked off with the Saco Fun Days Parade, an event that had several floats and the Milk River Wagon Train. The length of the event was a pleasant surprise for Beil, who grew up in Saco.

"The parade this morning was bigger than it has ever been," Beil said.

This year's event featured Leo and AnnaLou Bergtoll as the Saco Fun Days parade's Grand Marshalls.

The parade was followed by a feed put on by the Chamber. Later that day over a hundred attended the Rural Communities and Neighbors (RCAN) Ranch Rodeo, a sanctioned event that qualified the winning team for a finals event to be hosted later this year.

This event featured a ribbon-cutting prior to the start of the competition.

"It is pretty amazing and it is pretty heart-warming," Beil said of the ribbon-cutting. "I think that it is amazing to see the community come together."

She said that a lot of community members were a part of the building process, which started in mid-July after a grant was received in June. A fundraiser was also done to help with the cost of the project.

"They worked every day," Beil said of those helping with the construction of the arena. "They would get off of work, come here and work until dark."

Many of those that helped to build the arena, participated in the rodeo that day.

Beil said that there have been talks of a roping club, but right now the Chamber runs arena events. The new arena is the first active arena in the Saco area since the late '70s. The old arena is five miles north of Saco.

The RCAN Ranch Rodeo was won by 4 Play, a team consisting of Carli Simanton, Guy Simanton, Austin Sibley, and Jim Orahood. Their time was 6:29.80. Second place went to Salveson Ranch 2. The group consisting of Colter Salveson, Julio Salveson, Ted Brown, and Ken Salveson, had a time of 7:23.40. Third place went to The Creeps, who had a time of 7:40.90. The Creeps were Jason Beil, Brown, K. Salveson, and G. Simanton.

Anna Brown, Blake Ozark, and Royce Strobbe provided entertainment with their trick riding skills prior to the Ranch Rodeo Finals.

On Sunday, a softball tournament was held, followed by a horseshoe tournament. Details of those events will be available as soon a possible.