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Meet the high schoolers who organized the Wapello Rodeo

For more than 40 years, students in the Wapello FFA have made the rodeo a staple of their hometown.

WAPELLO, Iowa — Every year, the small town of Wapello, Iowa celebrates Chief Wapello day. It's the towns big festival of the summer, capped off with the only rodeo in the country, fully operated by high schoolers.

Since 1981, the Wapello FFA has organized the rodeo. It's funded through yearly concessions and sponsorships at the rodeo, with the students raising $98,000 this year.

"It's a lot of behind the scenes work that needs to be done," said former Wapello FFA President Montana Boline. "With taking calls, answering sponsorships, getting calls for other banners to order and making sure we have all money, vendors and parking in the PRCA ready for us is a big thing."

Last year, the rodeo had a record breaking attendance of over 150,000 people for the two days. Some spectators came all the way from Missouri.

For Boline, the FFA has done wonders for her. 

"FFA means the world to me," she said. "It has given me so many opportunities, so many different quests to take going to different conventions. Meeting new people and sharing more memories with more people than I can ever imagine."

Money raised from the rodeo will help provide scholarships and student development. 

"We go through decisions in our life that we have to make that could either make or break us," Boline said. "And it's [the FAA] kind of a learning experience for us to grow as people to learn how to make these decisions."

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