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Country-western fans, it’s time to break out your Western wear and polish up your dance steps for Cowboy Up Carbondale in the Fourth Street Plaza in downtown Carbondale Friday from 6 to 10 p.m.
The annual fundraiser, now in its 11th year, will feature the Rifle-based country and Southern rock band LeverAction, Western dancing, a live and silent auction, wagon rides, Slow Groovin’ BBQ, beer and wine, and Coke products for the kids.
Scott Haycock, who is the event co-director along with Erin Bassett, said they began the event 11 years ago as both a fundraiser and a way of celebrating Carbondale’s Western heritage.
“I was approached about it because they knew I had a lot of connections with the cowboy world,” Haycock said. “I said, ‘That’s a great idea,’ so I just ran with it, and I found some people to help me.
“We didn’t raise a lot of money that first year, but we saw where it could go and we just kept plugging away and it’s been going every year since.”
Since that time, Cowboy Up Carbondale has raised several thousand dollars for a variety of local organizations, which are chosen by its board of directors through an application process. Over the past two years it has benefited Ascendigo Autism Services and Patrick’s Place Drop-In Center.
This year, the beneficiary will be the Carbondale Middle School football team, which is badly in need of new jerseys, pads and new, technically superior helmets, which greatly reduce the risk of concussions and are quite pricey.
“All proceeds from this goes to the Roaring Fork Sports Foundation, which is a 501(c)(3),” Haycock said. “Then it goes from the sports foundation directly to the middle school football program.”
LeverAction, which consists of Jimmy Snowden on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, Rob Labig on drums, Dennis Ward on lead guitar and vocals, Steve Harding on rhythm guitar, Nat Waterman on fiddle and Steven Wendall Johnson on bass guitar and vocals, has been playing venues from the Roaring Fork Valley to Grand Junction since 2010, and is in its sixth year of playing Cowboy Up Carbondale. They are “a group of hardworking, down-home Colorado boys who love to make our own special brand of Southern and country rock music,” according to their Facebook page.
Slow Groovin’ BBQ, which is enormously popular at events all over the valley, will have a food truck at the event, and they will also serve family-style meals at VIP tables, which can be purchased for $600 and seat up to 10 people.
There will also be both live and silent auctions, with the live auction featuring the top 8 to 10 items, and the silent auction populated by as many as 100 donated items including tickets to Broncos, Avalanche and Rockies games, gift certificates to local restaurants, pictures and more.
Nieslanik horses, which supplies the horses and wagons for Carbondale’s tree lighting each year, will have a horse and wagon at the event that will be available for free wagon rides around town.