'We'll be there forever': Jay rodeo makes $100K for kids & life-long fan of Sandy Sansing

This year's Jay Pro Rodeo was the second sponsored by Pensacola automobile dealership owner Sandy Sansing, and if he has his way it's far from being the last.

"I've never been involved in anything that is as pure and wholesome as the Jay Rodeo," Sansing said. "I'm committed to sponsoring it for my lifetime. We'll be there forever."

Frederick Barrow, the pastor of Jay's Cornerstone Christian Church and the host of the rodeo, reached out to the Sansing team for the first time last year about teaming up to promote the event. Sansing said he hadn't heard of the rodeo before that time, but once he got a sense of what it was all about he was hooked on helping.

"The heart of Frederick, his wife, the whole rodeo committee, is gold," he said. "Everything they raise they give back to the community. The sole purpose of the event is for the enjoyment of the people, and every penny goes back to the community."

Jay Rodeo: Ropin', ridin' and fundraisin': Jay Pro Rodeo is a good time for a good cause

This year, Barrow said, the Jay Rodeo brought in $136,000, nearly doubling the revenues of last year's rain splattered event. When the expenses of putting it on are covered, it is expected the organizers will have netted somewhere in the neighborhood of $100,000.

And as Sansing alluded to, 100% of the proceeds go back to kids' programs in the community. That's as it should be, Barrow added, with the Jay High School Student Government Association leading the way, the students of the tiny town play a major role in ensuring the rodeo is a success.

"A good bit of the work is done by kids, the band puts up road signs and takes them down, they do the parking, they run the concession stand," Barrow said. "It's kids raising money for kids."

The money raised will go toward things like scholarships and reading programs. Santa Rosa Kids House and the Ronald McDonald House will receive funds. It will be used to buy band equipment or satisfy whatever other student needs may arise, Barrow said.

"There are different things it can go towards," he said. "And the bigger the rodeo gets, the more we can stretch it."

The rodeo itself this year drew "thousands and thousands" of people, Barrow said, from not only across Northwest Florida, but Southern Alabama and elsewhere in the Southeastern United States. It is an event sanctioned by the Professional Cowboys Association and serious competitors come from all over looking to earn points needed to qualify for the sport's National Finals.

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This year's event, the 23rd, was "the largest rodeo we've ever had," Barrow said, and an event initially used to fund local programs has grown large enough that student needs across Escambia and Santa Rosa counties can be addressed.

Barrow said having Sansing on board and his digital marketing team invested in promoting the rodeo has proven invaluable. The marketing experts, Ed Fernandez and Donnie Lewis, worked year round to let the world know about Jay's biggest annual event, setting up a Facebook page and a website.

Sansing himself put up $25,000 for the event and provided $1,000 for top three finishers in the rodeo's Mutton Bustin' competition, in which local youngsters are judged by the same folks judging the bull riders and bronc busters on their ability to ride a sheep.

Mutton Bustin' isn't always pretty to watch, Sansing said.

"A lot of them weren't ready for that sheep to tear out of the chute, trying to shake off the weight on their back," he said. "Most of them got knocked off pretty quick."

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Jay Pro Rodeo raises funds for Santa Rosa Escambia kids