The Santa Maria Elks Lodge Rodeo held its annual queen contest kickoff and auction dinner at the Santa Maria Elks Lodge on Saturday, April 16.
The three queen candidates for the 2022 Elks Lodge Rodeo were announcedin early March.
The candidates have six weeks until the start of the Rodeo to raise as many funds as possible.
"If you go to auctions and so forth, all the organizations have a lot of fundraising events like golf tournaments and during this period of time, between now and the rodeo, you can't be bored because there's a lot of opportunities to do a lot of things," Rodeo Queen Contest Chairman, Peter Sterling said.
The candidate that raises the most will be crowned the queen at the Queen Coronation, scheduled for June 3, 2022.
The 79th annual Santa Maria Elks Rodeo is scheduled to be held June 2, 2022 through June 5, 2022.
