The COWBOY MAGIC® company, a leading manufacturer of equine grooming products, has developed a program to benefit local and national rodeo queen pageant programs. Launched in April, the COWGIRL MAGIC® Rodeo Queen Pageant Fundraising Program enables pageants to raise much needed funds for their operational expenses and scholarship programs by providing free products for fundraising. Each qualified participating pageant receives 100 tubes of COWGIRL MAGIC® Pink Lady Lotion at no charge, which pageant contestants and organizers can offer in exchange for a suggested $10 donation. The program enables the pageants to raise $1,000 without any initial investment.

The Rodeo Queen Pageant Fundraising Program has received an immediate, positive response from pageant organizers, with 19 pageants across the country signing up within the first 45 days.

COWGIRL MAGIC® Pink Lady Lotion was created and packaged exclusively for rodeo queen pageant fund raising. "To date, more than 2,000 tubes of Pink Lady Lotion representing a potential of $20,000 have been donated to help raise operational and scholarship funds,” says COWBOY MAGIC® Founder and CEO Jim Cummings.

Cummings came up with the idea for the Rodeo Queen Pageant Fundraising Program after his company sponsored 2007 Miss URA Rodeo Queen Lacy Glover. “I became aware of the expenses associated with operating a rodeo queen pageant and their need to raise funds,” says Cummings. “This is a charitable way COWBOY MAGIC® can give back to the horse community by creating a fundraising solution to satisfy a rodeo pageant's need for additional operational and scholarship funds.”

What appealed to Cummings were the many benefits that young girls receive by participating in their local and national rodeo pageant programs. “Once I understood the personal-development benefits that a young horsewoman can receive by participating in a rodeo queen pageant, I was sold on the idea of helping,” says Cummings.

“Young women who compete in rodeo queen pageants benefit in a number of ways,” says Lisa Boeding, pageant director and coordinator for the Miss Rodeo Illinois Pageant. “They learn social skills and they work toward achieving personal goals they have set for themselves. They also learn what true sportsmanship is all about.”

Says Joyce Jenson, director of the JCRA Queen Pageant: “They get out among a wide diversity of people. They learn public speaking, growth of character and life skills.”

According to Cummings, the primary benefit of the Fundraising Program is more scholarship funds for the rodeo queen and her court. "Offering substantial educational scholarships will heighten the awareness of the general public, resulting in an increase in interest of young horsewomen in participating in the rodeo queen process,” says Cummings.

In recent years, pageants have found it increasingly more difficult to raise funding through sponsorships due to the stiff competition for sponsorship dollars from other facets of the rodeo industry, particularly the rodeo cowboys themselves. This program provides a fundraising opportunity developed exclusively for the pageants.

For more information about the Rodeo Queen Pageant Fundraising Program visit the COWBOY MAGIC® website at www.cowboymagic.com. or call 1-800-755-6844.