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2024 NLD BUFFALO BILL RODEO
SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 2024
THE NORTH PLATTE TELEGRAPH
ON THE TRAIL Former North Platte couple honored with last year’s Trail Boss Award
our house, we told the new owners, there’s probably six or seven past Miss Rodeo Nebraskas who have a key, so if they show up on your doorstep, don’t panic,” she laughed. As for the rodeo, Marty liked being part of the team that put on a good show. For him, the satisfaction was in “being able to give something back to the city of North Platte. We enjoyed a great life there, and it was nice to be involved. It was fun to continue to build the celebration and make it something special for the people of North Platte and the surrounding area.” Both Petersens loved the people they worked with. “I can’t say enough good things about the (rodeo queen association) committee,” Cindy said. “They are phenomenal people. We’re a family, we really are.” “Absolutely the people,” Marty said. “The NebraskalandDays board, fellow rodeo committee members, the contract personnel, the cowboys, everyone involved with the production.” The Trail Boss Award is given each year to a volunteer or volunteers who exemplify volunteer work, going above and beyond the call of duty to support the rodeo or its auxiliary events.
details that go with four days of pageant: preparation, set up and tear down, producing the style show, speech competition, interviews with judges and the media, a horsemanship contest, and more. Cindy also served four years as Nebraska’s national director for the Miss Rodeo America contest. As a national director, she spent ten days in Las Vegas at the national pageant, with setup, tear down, decorating, cleaning, and more, for the multi-day contest. The couple has retired from their careers and live on the same ranch Cindy’s great-great-grandfather homesteaded, near Cotesfield. Cindy is still chair of the queen pageant, but Marty is no longer on the rodeo committee. For Cindy, her favorite part of “queening” has been getting to know the cowgirls each year. “I just love the girls,” she said. “It’s very rewarding to see them grow and mature as young adults.” When the couple lived in North Platte, they gave each year’s queen a key to their house, in case they were passing through and needed a place to stay. “It wouldn’t be unusual to find a past Miss Rodeo Nebraska, even when they didn’t hold the title, at the house,” Cindy said. “I really enjoyed that. When we sold
RUTH NICOLAUS For The North Platte Telegraph M arty and Cindy Petersen were honored with the 2023 Trail Boss Award at last year’s Buffalo Bill Rodeo. The couple have dedicated decades to the event, and to the Miss Rodeo Nebraska Association as well. Marty grew up in North Platte and began volunteering with the NebraskalandDays committee in the early 1990s. He served as president from 1994-1995, chairing the corporate sponsorship program and the concert committee. When his term was over, he immediately became a member of the Buffalo Bill Rodeo committee. He and Cindy, a native of Cotesfield, Neb., married in 1998 and she began helping out right away. “We’d have workdays at the arena,” Marty remembers, “and she’d haul a grill out there, and cook hamburgers for the crew that was working. It slowly evolved to the point where she got involved.” The Miss Rodeo Nebraska pageant had moved from Burwell to North Platte, and she began helping with it. “Being the go-getter that she is,” he said, “she moved up through the ranks of that organization.” When a person spends thirty-plus years on a committee, he does about anything and everything there is to do. Marty helped with numerous construction projects, hired contract acts, helped set up and tear down, was liaison with security, helped hang banners, helped with sponsorships, and did the many tasks that need to be done to produce a rodeo. Cindy’s work with the rodeo queen committee includes being chairperson of the pageant for nearly 25 years, organizing sponsors, and helping with all the little courtesy photo MARTY AND CINDY PETERSEN ; the former North Platte residents now live near Cotesfield, Neb.
© Don Christner photo WITH THE BUFFALO BILL RODEO COMMITTEE BEHIND THEM , Cindy and Marty Petersen (in the center, flanked by Shelli Arensdorf and Jack Morris), are awarded the 2023 Trail Boss Award for their decades of volunteer work with the Buffalo Bill Rodeo and the Miss Rodeo Nebraska Association.
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