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Neosho, Mo. —
It was a near-record turnout for the 15th annual fall Barnyard Days on Saturday.
“We think it’s going to be one of the best Saturdays we ever had,” said organizer Steve Roark.
This year’s event has 125 vendors, Roark said and many have more than one space, spreading displays across Circle R Ranch.
Craft booths, children’s activities – including a barrel train and petting zoo, an expanded mountain man camp, archery section, haunted house, tractor exhibit and helicopter rides round out the events at the annual two-day festival, but it also supports a good cause, raising funds for the Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks. The event continues today.
Their record Saturday attendance was 16,000; Roark estimates 15,000 may have come through the gates Saturday. At 4 p.m. he called down to the gate and they still had a line of people coming in.
“The crowd came at 9 o’clock and they didn’t stop,” he said at the festival’s close Saturday night.
Konner Jones, 3, of Joplin, liked the tractors. Which did he like best?
“The big tires,” Konner said, pointing to one of the larger machines.
This year the event added helicopter rides, a favorite for Gabby Colgin, 10. She was scared, at first, of even getting into the helicopter, but her Papa Tonie Gorman bribed her into riding with him. She dug her fingers into the seat, but by late afternoon she was ready to do it again. Taking off was the best, Colgin said.
“When we were turning on my side,” she said, “I would have to look out the other girl’s window.”
More than just fun, the event has a mission. Part of its purpose is to raise funds for those affected by breast cancer through Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks, which provides direct financial support for area families.
“The funds that we raise today will be used locally to help families pay their bills while they’re in treatment,” said Crystal Webster, Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks executive director. “Even if someone is insured, most women have to take time off work and they find themselves coming up short financially.”
Last year they helped 248 families and 115 children in those families across a 30-county, 11-hospital area. The group helps breast cancer patients financially and connects them with other groups who can help.
“It can make the difference between completing treatment and making a decision that might provide them with less than optimal medical care,” Webster said.
It was a near-record turnout for the 15th annual fall Barnyard Days on Saturday.
“We think it’s going to be one of the best Saturdays we ever had,” said organizer Steve Roark.
This year’s event has 125 vendors, Roark said and many have more than one space, spreading displays across Circle R Ranch.
Craft booths, children’s activities – including a barrel train and petting zoo, an expanded mountain man camp, archery section, haunted house, tractor exhibit and helicopter rides round out the events at the annual two-day festival, but it also supports a good cause, raising funds for the Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks. The event continues today.
Their record Saturday attendance was 16,000; Roark estimates 15,000 may have come through the gates Saturday. At 4 p.m. he called down to the gate and they still had a line of people coming in.
“The crowd came at 9 o’clock and they didn’t stop,” he said at the festival’s close Saturday night.
Konner Jones, 3, of Joplin, liked the tractors. Which did he like best?
“The big tires,” Konner said, pointing to one of the larger machines.
This year the event added helicopter rides, a favorite for Gabby Colgin, 10. She was scared, at first, of even getting into the helicopter, but her Papa Tonie Gorman bribed her into riding with him. She dug her fingers into the seat, but by late afternoon she was ready to do it again. Taking off was the best, Colgin said.
“When we were turning on my side,” she said, “I would have to look out the other girl’s window.”
More than just fun, the event has a mission. Part of its purpose is to raise funds for those affected by breast cancer through Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks, which provides direct financial support for area families.
“The funds that we raise today will be used locally to help families pay their bills while they’re in treatment,” said Crystal Webster, Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks executive director. “Even if someone is insured, most women have to take time off work and they find themselves coming up short financially.”
Last year they helped 248 families and 115 children in those families across a 30-county, 11-hospital area. The group helps breast cancer patients financially and connects them with other groups who can help.
“It can make the difference between completing treatment and making a decision that might provide them with less than optimal medical care,” Webster said.
The breast cancer cause is personal, Roark said, after watching his sister struggle with the disease and he knows the financial and emotional toll it can take on a family. This is the fourth event the Roarks have worked with the Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks. Approximately 40 volunteers from the group staff the gates, their information table and sell mums and T-shirts. The event is free to breast cancer survivors and patients and between vendors donations and gate sales they hope to offset some of the costs involved with expanding the Springfield group to the four state area.
“The fight against cancer is so important because it’s actually defeatable,” Roark said.
Research money is fine and good, he said, but BCFO is where the rubber meets the road.
“It lets them focus on getting well instead of who’s going to pay the electric bill,” Roark said, “that has to mean an awful lot.”
That financial support can keep mothers from choosing between their health and their children’s needs, he added.
“If we didn’t have them we’d have to invent them,” he said of the BCFO.
This is the second of two Barnyard Days events this year. As part of the new focus on breast cancer awareness an event was held on Mother’s Day weekend, but turnout was not as high. In the future there will be one event and it will be held in the fall.
“The community is used to it and we’re gonna roll with it,” Webster said.
Not only does Barnyard Days raise funds to help cancer patients, but fundraisers inside the event will benefit Joplin schools. The high school choir is singing this year and raising funds to replace their wardrobe and sheet music. The Joplin FFA is running the straw bale maze. Funds will help replace what they lost and send teens to an upcoming competition.
“It’s really fun for our kids and for getting out in the community,” said Jason Cutler, FFA adviser. “It’s good exposure. There’s a lot of ag-related stuff going on.”
Most of the lumber being milled at the sawmill station is white oak from the Joplin Elks Lodge, destroyed in the May 22 tornado. As part of a woodcutting demonstration a cross-shaped memorial is being crafted on the grounds and at the end of the event it will be donated to the Joplin Elks to commemorate their building effort and to honor those who lost their lives during the storm.
But the day is about having fun. Nothing, Roark said, makes him feel better than to see families with small children out to enjoy the day.
“I think Barnyard Days is for kids,” Roark said. “The adults just love to come along with them.”
Barnyard Days runs from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. today at the Circle R Ranch, two miles east on Iris Road off Gateway Drive.
