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Rodeo Canada Princess home for a visit

Miss Rodeo Canada Princess Kirsten Braumandl will be dancing for travel money this Saturday night at the annual Stampede Dinner, Dance and Auction happening at the Elks Hall.
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Kirstin Braumandle

Miss Rodeo Canada Princess Kirsten Braumandl will be dancing for travel money this Saturday night at the annual Stampede Dinner, Dance and Auction happening at the Elks Hall.

A dance card ticket will cost $5 to kick up your heels with Braumandl to the music of the popular country group Clancy Wright and the Silverados.

Braumandl says she doesn’t really know how to two-step, polka, or waltz, but is confident she will know how to do some of those dances by the end of the evening.

“I don’t really have a favourite, I will just go with the flow to whatever my partner wants to do,” Braumandl says.

Another fundraiser for the Miss Rodeo Canada travel fund will be a sweetheart tree where people can pay $5 for a card on the tree that provides a chance to win a prize valued at anywhere from $10 to $60, Braumandl says.

All the money raised by these two events will go into the Miss Rodeo Canada fund to help defray costs of travel this year by herself and Miss Rodeo Canada Kizia Morrison.

Just in the past couple of months the pair have helped out at a trade show and rodeo in Denver, Colorado and at an agriculture conference in Alberta. In February they will attend a fundraiser in Red Deer.

Braumandl will also help out at Family Fest this Sunday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. at Marie Sharpe elementary. She will also visit Horsefly school next week before heading back to Alberta. She will be back in Williams Lake for the Indoor Rodeo in April.

The fundraisers for the Miss Canada royalty are only part of the fun to expect at this year’s Stampede dinner, dance and auction Saturday night.

The event is primarily a fund raiser for the annual Williams Lake Stampede, as well as a fun winter break to kick off the Stampede season and get people thinking about Stampede, says association president Fred Thomas.

They usually have more than 100 items in their silent auction and about a dozen or so live auction items, as well as some fun auctions.

New to the event last year was the hat auction introduced by Liz Crosina.

To get in on this auction participants buy a ball cap, which they wear or not, depending on how lucky they feel when the buzzer goes and the organizer flips a coin.

If the coin comes up heads, all those with their hats on stay in for the next round and those with hats off are out. If the coin comes up tails all those with their hats off are the winners and stay in for the next round.

The coin toss continues at intervals until one winner is left.

The prize this year is a beer fridge which may have something in it, Thomas says.

He says the hat auction is quite unique and popular with about 80 people participating last year.

A special draw prize has also been donated by the Echo Valley Ranch and Spa.

Thomas says the evening usually raises between $10,000 and $12,000 which helps to cover costs of putting on the Williams Lake Stampede.

Tickets to the annual Stampede dinner, dance and auction usually sell out early but if there are any tickets left they will be available at Margetts Meats, Willie’s Western Wear, Cariboo Saddlery, or Cariboo Spurs Apparel and Tack.