Jaycees create grain bin beverage stand

SIKESTON, Mo. -- The 71st annual Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo kicks off Wednesday, Aug. 9, and the Sikeston Jaycees' retired members have been hard at work on new grounds' renovations, which includes the addition of a new grain bin beer stand.

According to Jeff King, a retired Jaycee, the grain bin stand has been in the works for years.

"It's actually 10 years in the making," King said. "We've thought about and planned it for a few years now. We spent the better part of 10 years wanting to do this, and then finally all the stars aligned."

King credited Kelly Harms and Butch Koeppel of Agri Systems of Cape and Jackson with making the grain bin beer stand possible.

"They were able to help us out immensely," King said. "With figuring out the sizes we needed to do, and everything else that we needed to do to make it work."

Dennis Irwin, a Jaycee Rooster, said one of the major additions to the beer stand grain bin is a mini-jumbotron in the center of the grain bin.

"We are really close to finishing," Irwin said a week out from the rodeo. "We just have some electrical things to finish and mount some TVs on the jumbotron and hang it up."

King also mentioned they had some signs to put up in the new beer stand.

King said this year's rodeo general chairman Ethan Vasquez formally gave them the go-ahead to make the vision happen.

"Last fall, Jeff came to me as the incoming chairman of the rodeo with a vision," Vasquez said. "His vision was a grain bin beer stand."

Vasquez said King performed all of the legwork from there, meeting with Harms and Koeppel, and then returning to him and telling him they were going to make it happen.

Vasquez said the grain bin was delivered to the rodeo grounds June 24 and they worked hard to remove the old stand before having concrete poured to set up the new grain bin.

King said they are excited to see what the community thinks of the new beer stand.

Nathen King, Sam King, Danny Spain, Brian Sander, Zach Shaw, Irwin and Vasquez are among the retired members who helped make the grain bin a reality.

This year's rodeo will take place Wednesday, Aug. 9, through Saturday, Aug. 12. Riley Green will perform Wednesday; Travis Denning on Thursday; Ja Rule and the Ying Yang Twins on Friday; and Whiskey Myers on Saturday.

Saturday night is completely sold out, and the remaining tickets for Wednesday night are currently in the double digits. Thursday night is on track, and Friday night sales are above average, according to Vasquez.

To purchase tickets, visit sikestonrodeo.com, call the box office at (800) 455-2855 or visit the box office, which is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.