INSIDE...• Learn about Western

Bonanza’s beginning pg.1

• Meet the 2016 leadership team pg. 2-3

• Sneak peak into livestock show

Fall 2015 Edition2016 Western Bonanza

Created by: Courtney Owens

Western Bonanza has been a trade-mark of Cal Poly’s Animal Science Depart-ment since its development in 1985. Mark Re-ichle, a then senior at Cal Poly, saw a need for a large scale livestock show on the west coast. As his senior project he created the first ever Western Bonanza. He created a unique show; completely student ran, with the help of a few advisors and mentors along the way. Eight-year Western Bonanza beef exhibitor, Brett Johns, said “Western Bonanza stands out because it is ran very professionally by the students of Cal Poly and that you won’t run into any of the political stuff that happens at livestock shows.” The show originally started as pri-marily a one-ring beef show, but over the years it has transformed into a five-ring show allow-ing exhibitors to compete with sheep, goats, swine, heifers and steers. Two people who have been there since the beginning are Mike and Wendy Hall. The two were the first advisors of Western Bonan-za. They have seen the ups and downs of the livestock show. Even though they are no lon-ger Cal Poly employees, both are still actively involved in the show. Last year, the Halls were a guest speaker for the winter class. During the February show, Wendy is the photographer who takes the official champion pictures.

Western Bonanza as seen a number of different advisors. Last year was Professor Lee Rinker’s first year. Although he may not have known exactly what he was getting him-self into, the 2015 show was nothing short of spectacu-lar. It took place over the weekend of Febru-ary 13th-15th at the Paso Robles Event Center, and hosted over 500 exhibitors showing 2,000 head of livestock. Not only was there an out-standing amount of entries, but the class also broke the record for most sponsorship money ever raised. With this additional money, the class will be able to make improvements to this years show. In addition to Lee Rinker advising the class, Amie Wadsworth has joined the team. During her time as a student at Cal Poly, Amie was involved with Western Bonanza all four years of college, serving as swine com-mittee member, sheep committee chair, and the livestock manager. This year, Amie said her role will be “overseeing sponsorships, entries, hospitality, and media.” She hopes to “advise students on planning a successful show. I am wanting to stay in close contact with the committees I am supervising. I will

want to make sure things are being accom-plished on a timeline. And provide my knowl-

edge and support to the class.”   Amie says at this year’s show, she wants the class to “keep in mind the important things to run a  success-

ful show and staying focused. I want to make sure the students keep in mind the important things and accomplish those things well.” She is surprised by the initiative of the manager team and how much they care about the program. With the advice from advisors Lee Rinker and Amie Wadsworth, and with the guidance of the Hall family, and former advi-sors Jacky Eshelby and Megan Silcott, Western Bonanza 2016 is sure to live up to the standard of shows past.*

“....ran very professionally by the students of Cal Poly”

-Brett Johns

A Glimpse Into The Past

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Fall Issue

The 2016 Western Bonanza leadership team began meeting at the end of the 2015 spring quarter. Now, they meet weekly in a course titled ASCI 490 Advanced Animal Produc-tion and Management Enterprise. In this class, the managers and committee chairs are planning the 2016 Western Bonanza show and getting prepared for the winter class, when about 100 more stu-dents will join in on the work to get ready for the show. The 2016 course is titled ASCI 212 Live-stock Show Management. The leadership team has made a few changes to the 2016 show. The theme for the upcom-ing show is “Crowning Champi-ons Since 1985”. The team decided they wanted this year’s show to have a very classic livestock show feel, so the awards (ribbons and banners) will be old-fashioned award colors, pink and purple, and black and gold. Another change the leadership team has made is to the Western Bonanza logo. The team wanted to update

the way the animals were facing, and the size of the animals. The new logo is a better representation of what show livestock look like today. They also changed the color scheme of the logo so it fits with the theme. The new logo is purple with gray and cream accents. In the first few weeks of the ASCI 212 class, each of the committee chairs give a brief presentation on their committee and roles. Rylin Lindahl, current merchandise committee chair said “the committee presentations are some of my favorite memories from last year’s class. Each com-mittee is trying to show why the students in the 212 class should be on their committee, but it normally ends up being why they shouldn’t be on other committees. Its a good laugh, a good introduc-tion to the class.” Each committee plays an important role in the show. This year, there are nine different committees for students to choose from. The chairs of the merchan-dise committee are Rylin Lindahl

and Kayla Manning. Rylin said “The merchandise committee is in charge of ordering all of the class and exhibitor shirts for the show, in addition to providing merchan-dise to be sold at the actual show. The merchandise sold at the show includes hats, sweatshirts and jackets, vests, and t-shirts.” The chairs of the media committee are Josh Campo, Courtney Owens, and Alden Caldwell. The role of the media committee is to live-stream each of the show rings all weekend, and to keep the Western Bonanza social media accounts

active to publcize the show. The hospitality chairs are Alanna Smith, Danielle Wood, and Katie DeR-aad. This commit-tee is in charge of feeding the class throughout the weekend of the show, and their most important task is the spon-sorship dinner on Saturday night of the show week-end to recognize

and thank all of the Western Bonanza sponsors. The awards committee is in charge of getting all of the awards purchased and have them ring side for when the winners are announced. The chairs of this committee are Shane Gillard and Kendal Lynch. The entries com-mittee is chaired by Jessie Allen and Dalton Alexandre. This com-mittee is in charge of ShoWorks, making sure entries get in on time and are correct, and then check-ing in the exhibitors at the show. The livestock committees are beef, headed by Braden Loveday, Sommer Boyd, Maddie Albiani and Joe Chambers; goats, headed by Katie Migliazzo and Mady Braught; sheep, headed by Saman-tha Maas and Kelsie Bowles; and swine, headeed by Jana Colom-bini and Kristin Alamo. Another committee students can join is the facilities committee.This commit-tee is in charge of making sure the fairgrounds is ready to go and helping keep it clean and properly running during the show week-end. The chairs of this committee are Landan White, Mikaela Tosta and Will Martin.

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Crowning Champions Since 1985

Each of these committees are under the supervision of a manager. This year, the livestock manager is Jace Tarbell, the livestock assistant is Kylin Costa, the office assistant and manager are Lane Simmons and Allison Finks, the facilities manager are Diane Meyer, the marketing manager is Katie Roberti, sponsorship manager Shelby Zumwalt, and general manager Suzanne Amaral. Being a part of the Western Bonanza class is an experience like no other. Three-time Bonanza student Gabi Berryhill said her favorite memory from Western Bonanza is “the nights, getting cleaned up and being able to relax or have fun with your friends and sharing all the crazy stories you heard today or the crazy things you saw! Another one would be handing out awards, especially to the young ones, they always look so happy.” Most students who take the Bonanza class will take it more then once, to continue developing their leader-ship skills and continue to make more memories at the Best Show in the West.*

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Scan to listen to interview with Western Bonanza Merchandise committee chair, Rylin Lindahl.