Two girls. One crown. The 2018 Cochrane Lions Rodeo Royalty Queen will be crowned on the final afternoon of the Lions Labour Day Rodeo weekend, on Sept. 3. The newly-selected queen will be announced on the final evening of competition on Aug. 29, and following a weekend of taking part in rodeo duties alongside Queen Jessie Miller (who hails from Sundre), she will take the reins at the rodeo finale. "The queen is the ambassador for the rodeo, the Lions Club and for Cochrane in general," explained program coordinator Susan Black. This year, three candidates put their names in the hat during open registrations in July. One had to withdraw due to other commitments, narrowing the playing field to two. Emma Blust of Cochrane, a 2018 Springbank High graduate and Hannah Brown of Calgary, a Bowness High School 2018 grad, will be competing in horsemanship, public speaking and knowledge categories. The winner must demonstrate that she is the best candidate to represent the town and its western heritage. She must also be able to take part in some 60 events over the next year. While the time commitment is not light, Black said the committee maintains that "school must come first" and they work to accomodate the non-royal commitments of their selected queen. This is the 10th year that the competition has been held in Cochrane and will be the third year that only a queen is crowned; previous years saw both a queen and princess, but a small pool to select from whittled it down to one position for the successful candidate between the ages of 18-24. To learn more about the Cochrane Lions Rodeo Royalty program, visit cochranelionsroyalty.com.
