BELLE — The Ya Ya’s 9th Annual Battle of the Bulls event on Saturday may have broken the record for participation, says group president Cindy Butler.

“We expected the crowd because of the shutdown and reopening and everything,” Butler said. “The precautions were there and we filed an action plan with the state that was approved with the State Department of Health.”

It was in their favor that the event was held outside where social distancing could be achieved easier. The group suspected both the pandemic and the fact that many people have smaller incomes would decrease the funds raised at  their biggest money-maker to help sick local residents, but that wasn’t the case.

“In such a bad year financially for many — it didn’t affect our sponsorships at all — in fact, we gained new ones,” Butler said in awed surprise. “It turned out to be a positive event, the weather was great and we had no trouble.”

The group had considered canceling the event, because of the pandemic, but then they wouldn’t have been able to help if a community member was diagnosed with cancer or any other disease.

“The needs we address in the community haven’t been reduced,” Butler said. “There are still diagnoses that exist and people still in need. It was the driving force behind us doing anything at all.”

They also honored Karlee Jo Hallahan, the first Ya Ya’s benefit recipient, who died on Jan. 24. Karlee’s legacy and the Ya Ya’s will always be joined.

“She is the reason we exist,” Butler said. “We also honored Caden Moss who died from injuries from a car wreck since last year’s performance.”

It took the community to bring the event together. The Maries County Sheriff’s Department, along with the Belle Division, directed traffic on Highway M/Third Street, the Belle Community Betterment Association (BCBA) worked the gates and admission, and there were countless volunteers that helped the show be a success, Butler said.

“We couldn’t have had the concession stand or the t-shirts and the raffles if they weren’t manned by volunteers,” Butler said. “We did a raffle for a pellet grill and a gun.”

Kevin Guffey won the gun and Paul Vonderhaar won the grill. The Ya Ya’s even purchased more bleachers for the event.

“A group of local men put the bleachers together. It was a several night project. A lot of people gave up their personal time to make those bleachers happen,” Butler said. “Barrett Material donated the rock the bleachers are sitting on.

That is all without mentioning that the Battle of The Bulls had its biggest rider participation yet.

“We had 24 bull teams, so we had to have 48 rides,” Butler said. “We had teams that drove 10 hours to participate. It was our biggest show as far as contestants that we have ever had.”

Casey Coulter of Kirksville, Mo., was the winner of the bull riding contest. The following Futurity event winners were Cody May for the yearlings and Justin Dickerson for the two-year-olds.

Butler said it is “anyone’s guess” how many were actually in attendance, since they don’t have a counter, but they did promote social distancing throughout the evening.

The Ya Ya’s also took turns rotating through the bathrooms each hour to wipe down and disinfect surfaces to help prevent any spread if someone was sick. They also canceled events that would have resulted in close quarters and contact.

“There was no sheep scrambling this year either because we didn’t want to put that many kids together. To try to increase safety, we skipped that this year,” Butler said. “We spaced out the vendors and tried our best to use formalized lines, even for the concession stand.”

Butler said the overall event was successful, and there were no major injuries, although they did have an medical evac group standing by in case of injuries.

“Everyone enjoyed the night,” Butler said

They also had an unlikely group volunteer for clean up.

“The sheriff’s department was helpful,” she said. “They utilized the inmates from the Maries County Jail to pick up trash after the event and they cleaned up the whole entire park after the event. They did amazing.”

While the group has not tallied the total funds raised from the event because they are still waiting on bills to come in, Butler said she anticipates that it will be just as good as last year.

“I can’t brag enough about the way the Ya Ya team came together,” she said.