‘They keep fighting’: Kids with life-threatening diseases get special time at NFR

Wrangler National Finals Rodeo contestants’ days are filled with sponsor appearances, family time, and maybe a nap here and there.

On Sunday afternoon, before the fourth round, a big group of contestants broke away from busy schedules to spend time with children who have cancer or other life-threatening diseases. The 2022 Wrangler NFR Golden Circle of Champions gave 20 kids a day away from treatment, hospitals and doctors.

The children were joined by their families at the Tuscany hotel-casino. The youngsters got to participate in mock rodeo events, have lunch with the contestants, walk the red carpet and get new cowboy hats and gift bags.

In a nutshell, world-class kids got treated like world-class cowboys and cowgirls — by world-class cowboys and cowgirls, no less.

Half of the kids came from the Las Vegas area, and the other half represented rodeos from across the country. One of those rodeos is held in Franklin, Tenn., just 60 miles away from Cedar Hill, where team roper Chad Masters grew up.

It was no coincidence that Masters got paired up with Braxton Hallums, a 7-year-old boy who has been through a full year of treatment for T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma. The youngster, who loves riding his pony and dirt bike, still faces another 18 months of treatment, but he hasn’t quit doing the things he loves.

And it’s no surprise that he loves to rope. His mother, Tara Hallums, grew up in Springfield, Tenn., and when Masters was a kid learning to rope, he was doing so on Tara’s horse.

“This means so much to us,” Tara said. “It’s a chance to get clear away and focus on something that we all love. To have Chad here, because he is a close family friend, makes it even more special.”

Team roper Jeremy Buhler and tie-down roper Rhen Richard showed up wearing gold-colored Warbonnet hats, custom-made for the Golden Circle of Champions gala. Buhler, Richard and several other NFR contestants went on to wear those gold hats in Sunday night’s fourth go-round at the Thomas &Mack Center.

In fact, Hunter Cure showed up for the kids on Sunday afternoon, then showed out Sunday night in gold hat and gold shirt and won the steer wrestling go-round. So perhaps there was some good karma following time well spent with such deserving kids.

But back to Sunday afternoon: After each child was introduced on stage and picked up a goodie bag, six NFR contestants donated their hats for a charity auction. Richard and Buhler were among those putting their cowboy hats up for bid, and their two offerings raised $22,000. In total, the hats brought in $83,000, money that will be used to give more of these deserving kids a champion’s experience at rodeos across the country.

“It’s a real encouragement to see what these kids go through and how they keep fighting,” Masters said. “Now that I’m a dad, I have a new appreciation for what Braxton and his family are going through. I know this means a lot to them, but it means even more to me.”

The Nevada contingent of kids was sponsored by the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation. The other 10 were sponsored by rodeo committees in their respective communities. After Sunday afternoon’s festivities, all 20 got to attend Sunday’s go-round at the Thomas &Mack.

Tina Tonascia first brought the Golden Circle to life at the local level, as head of the Santa Maria (Calif.) Elks Rodeo Committee. The Golden Circle of Champions got off to a humble start at the 2016 Santa Maria Rodeo. But it took just two years to get it integrated nationally, as the event joined forces with the Wrangler NFR in 2018.

Each year since then, the Golden Circle has been a staple of the NFR calendar, a huge year-ending opportunity for these tough kids and their families, who all get a break from the grind of their medical fights.

Tonascia has been the driving force behind building up Golden Circle events with rodeo committees across the country, watching it bloom into a national campaign.

“It’s a really special time for everyone involved,” Tonascia said. “It’s a highlight for the kids and their families. Everybody pays attention to them and treats them like the champions that they are.”