Chutes open, releasing animals and riders, and in a few seconds time, a bull is bucked, a steer is wrestled, a calf is roped, or barrels are circled.
This and more have drawn millions to the sport of rodeo for decades, and for the last decade in Liberal, the Seward County PRCA Rodeo has drawn more than its share of fans to town.
Aug. 15 and 16, the rodeo will start its second decade with the 11th edition of the event, and making this year’s PRCA even more exciting is the addition of a new set of bleachers to replace a set damaged in a storm a few years back.
Everyone is invited to come learn more about Operation Christmas Child and how to become involved in sharing the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with children and their families around the world.
Guest speaker Jon Beckett will share stories of the “Journey of the Shoebox.” He will highlight how these gospel opportunities are making an eternal kingdom impact all over the globe.
The city of Liberal will see some new updates in a couple different areas thanks to some action by the Liberal City Commission at its most recent meeting Tuesday evening.
One of the major update projects has been with the City of Liberal logo, which Chief Communications Officer Keeley Young said has been in the works for a long time.
The city’s Treatment Court continues to make strides with people in the community, and as program leader Judge Jason Maxwell tells it, he is very proud.
“This program has grown as we’ve gone throughout the years, and I couldn’t be prouder of the work we’re doing,” Maxwell said. “We started with a pilot program in 2019 at that time, we weren’t really that structured, we got more structured as we really started to develop the program in 2020, and we’ve been revising and improving the program in that time. There have been a couple of recent changes, including us adding a second track – we began with a high-risk, high-need track, which was what was recommended at the national level. That refers to a person being at a high risk of reoffending and possibly committing new offenses, and the high-need refers to a person being at a high need for treatment. We’ve been very successful with that, but we discovered we’re missing a piece that would be for the clients who are earlier on in their issues and they’re more low-risk, so we added that track for the clients who are coming in who aren’t in quite as much trouble and we’re able to provide that assistance and early intervention for them before they get into more trouble. We also began an alumni association that is picking up steam and providing support for not only alumni but also clients who are in one of the later phases of our program. As the clients progress and graduate to those later phases, we want them to start adjusting to where they’re going to be once they get done with everything and how they can adjust and have that needed support after they’re done. As far as who we serve, that’s a little tough to say ... if you look at our numbers of defendants, we have thousands of cases every year that come through, and the majority of them I don’t see again – they start with their first appearance and then pay their ticket or fine, or have their case dismissed, and there are some of those clients I don’t even end up seeing. Those cases don’t require a lot of resources. As things track upwards, there are fewer people we work with defendants, but as that necks down and we get to fewer and fewer people, the resources go the other way.”
