The City of Lake Station hosted a bull riding and music rodeo event at Riverview Park on Sunday, October 15.
This was the inaugural year of the event. Mayor Bill Carroll considered the preparation for this unique event to be a learning process that paid off.
“We’re always looking for different ways to bring people to the City of Lake Station,” Carroll said. “After researching, we realized that there wasn’t an event like this in the area. There’s bull riding, Hispanic music, food, drinks and plenty of other rodeo activities.”
Doors opened for the event at 12 p.m. The bull riding event started at 4 p.m., with eight different bulls on display.
Carroll is optimistic that this event could become a mainstay in the Lake Station community.
“Our plan is to make this a yearly event,” Carroll said. “We want to add a variety of new things one at a time. One time, we’ll have a pure country music festival. Eventually, we would even like to get dancing horses in here. We just want to make sure everybody in the community has something they can look forward to and appreciate in their cultures.”
Carroll recognized plenty of departments that work with the City of Lake Station to put together the rodeo. This includes the police, fire, emergency medical services, building department, city hall, clerk-treasurer, storm water and sewer departments.
One individual that Carroll said played a big role in affiliation with the City of Lake Station to make this happen is Carlos Alvarez. He served as a leader and reliable teammate for the big picture vision.
“It was a team effort,” Alvarez said. “There were many groups of people that worked in different areas. Everybody had a part in it to put together a family-oriented event with activities to offer for people of different backgrounds or cultures.”
Alvarez was also very appreciative of working with Mayor Carroll. He hopes that the City of Lake Station can come together for another spectacular event like this again very soon.
“Working with Mayor Carroll and his people has been excellent,” Alvarez said. “Any dilemma that would come into play, they were quick to respond. Working with them was probably the easiest collaboration I’ve been a part of.”
On top of catering to the people in Lake Station, Alvarez wants to see this event increase awareness throughout the Region to what makes their city special.
“We don’t only hope to attract people in Lake Station,” Alvarez said. “Surrounding cities like La Porte, Hobart and the Chicagoland area is in our plan to expand the reach moving forward. We’re trying to bring people from different places to see what Lake Station has to offer.”
There were also tables at the event with multicultural hats and attire. From the live music, bull riding and diverse camaraderie, the City of Lake Station was ecstatic with the outcome and the showing in the debut of this event.
“I could not be more proud of the City of Lake Station and the community outreach,” Carroll said. “We want to succeed as a city. I think we’ve found our niche and we’re going to continue to improve each year we do this.”
For more information on the City of Lake Station, please visit lakestation-in.gov.
