‘Special Needs’ Can’t Stop These Kids From Being A Cowboy At Rodeo Day Camp

‘Special Needs’ Can’t Stop These Kids From Being A Cowboy At Rodeo Day Camp

In the Bay Area, California, a day at the rodeo for children with developmental challenges leaves everyone in tears at some point, either from joy or compassion.

Hosted by a cowboy whose son was born with Down Syndrome, Little ‘Pardners’ Rodeo treats 40 children aged 4 to 17 to an all-day event of cowboy/cowgirl activities.

Organized by the Exceptional Needs Network in Livermore, the children can ride ponies, practice their lassoing skills, and test their balance on the mechanical bull.

“It’s hard to find things that they can do and can do safely and have fun,” says Donnie Perry, the 10-gallon hat (and brain) behind Little Pardners. “Everybody wants to be a cowboy/cowgirl at some point in their lives, this is a way we can make that dream come true.”

Recently features on CBS News Bay Area having received the network’s Icon Award, Perry considers the 40 special needs kids that visit him each June his own children for the day.

Perry was putting on the Little Pardners Rodeo even before his son, Joshua, was born. The proud father, whose heart is almost as big as his moustache, told the CBS affiliate that God looked down and saw the love and compassion he had in his heart for challenged children, and decided to give him one of his own.

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There’s a lot of trying new things for the attendants. It’s difficult at the best of times to learn how to lasso a calf, but at the rodeo, it’s one of several things the kids are encouraged to try and get the hang of.

“They just feel like they belong and aren’t being judged, looked at differently; they’re just being themselves and that’s all we ever want,” said Laura Peters of the Exceptional Needs Network.

WATCH the story below from CBS Bay Area…