Breast Cancer killed nearly 50,000 women in 2006.

The Clatsop County Rodeo, in its second year as a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association rodeo, will hop on the hayride this weekend and collect donations for the Tough Enough to Wear Pink campaign.

As with other rodeos across the country urging attendees at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds to wear pink on a given night, the Clatsop County Rodeo Association hopes to see stands full of pink at the Saturday rodeo in support of breast cancer research. Members of the rodeo association, chute men, officials and timers will set an example for the crowd by wearing pink during the evening’s events.

“Some association members got information about the program at last year’s finals in December and it just sort of germinated from there,” said Laurie Drage, this year’s Tough Enough program organizer for the Clatsop County Rodeo. “One of the newer members said ‘We’ve got to do this,’ and it went from there.”

In 2006, the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo donated $1 million to breast cancer awareness and research as part of the Tough Enough to Wear Pink program.

Nearly all of the money raised will go to the North Coast Breast Health Awareness Center currently housed at Columbia Memorial Hospital. Drage felt it was an appropriate place for the raised funds to go since the Susan G. Komen Foundation provided funds for the start-up of the North Coast Breast Health Awareness Center, and it is also the foundation that recieved the funds donated at the NFR last December.

There will be quilt raffle featuring two quilts. The first is a pink quilt with pink cowgirl boots on it. The second quilt is a Western-themed quilt. Tickets are $5.

“There’s a girl and a boy quilt really,” said Drage.

There will also be a raffle featuring such items as a pink Resistol cowboy hat, pink Wrangler bandanas, pink sweatshirts and numerous other items. Tickets for the raffle are $1.

This year’s rodeo will also feature a dance after the events Friday and Saturday and the annual Livestock Association Steak BBQ from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday.

The rodeo begins at 7 p.m. each night. All tickets for the rodeo are general admission. Tickets for adults are $15 each and children 10 and under will get in for $10 each.

There are 500 tickets for the quilt raffle and 1,000 tickets for the pink raffle. Tickets can be purchased at Papa Jack’s or Brims before the rodeo.

They can also be purchased between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. Friday during the rodeo. If there are still tickets available, they will be on sale until 7 p.m. Saturday at the rodeo arena.