Sheriff Gentry with the Reese family / W.C. Mann
CULLMAN – This week, the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office made its first major announcement about the upcoming 19th annual Cullman County Sheriff’s Office Jimmy Arrington Memorial Rodeo, to be held Dec. 7-9. The rodeo will, as always, open with an event for special needs children and students on Thursday, Dec. 7, followed by a sponsors’ dinner that evening. The regular rodeo will take place on the two following evenings.
Gentry and CCSO staff displayed items that will be raffled off on the closing night of the rodeo, including:
- Custom, handmade saddle valued at $1,600
- Stoeger 3500 12-gauge shotgun in Realtree camouflage, which typically sells for around $700
- Thompson Center Venture Predator .308 bolt action rifle in Realtree camouflage, which typically sells for around $475
The CCSO received special prizes for this year’s rodeo from the Donald Reese family, in the form of two .45 pistols from the Glock Custom Shop. Each is unique, but both share such features as compensated barrels, extended magazine releases, flared magazine well ports and electronic optics.
“We thank the sheriff’s department for everything they do,” said Reese, “and we really appreciate what they do for the special needs children in this county. And on behalf of all the special needs children in Cullman County, we’d like to present this to Sheriff Gentry.”
The pistols will be auctioned at the sponsors’ dinner Thursday evening.
The Sheriff’s Rodeo is the office’s primary fundraising event, providing money for deputies’ ballistic vests and community events including the Citizens’ Academy, firearms safety classes and self-defense classes. Money is also given to local schools.
On Oct. 5, Gentry and the Cullman County Sheriff's Rodeo Committee donated $15,500 from the proceeds of the 2016 Sheriff's Rodeo to Cullman County Superintendent Shane Barnette and Cullman City Schools Superintendent Dr. Susan Patterson.
The money will be divided between the 31 schools in Cullman County who have special needs children.
“It’s our biggest fundraiser of the year,” said Gentry, “but it really (means) more than that to us, just being with the children and all the citizens. It takes a lot of work; it’s almost a year-round project, but we just can’t thank them enough, from the bottom of our heart, for what they do for us.”
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