Sarah Wilkins Miss Rodeo Montana is ambassador for the sport by Brenda McDonald There are some 147,046 square miles in the state of Montana, and by the time January rolls around, Sarah Wilkins, '03 AnSci, will probably have driven across many of those Montana miles. As the reigning Miss Rodeo Montana, her official duties take her to events every weekend the length and breadth of the state and beyond. She describes a recent official trip from Bozeman to Las Vegas as "only 800 miles." She travels the lonely miles usually by herself. On the bright side, she says she's getting to listen to a lot of books on tape. But Wilkins puts the time in gladly as a goodwill ambassador for the sport of rodeo, with the message that the animals used in rodeo are treated humanely. "I go into schools, and I speak to community groups," she said. In her speeches she also talks a lot about setting goals, persevering. "That's something I can identify with because I ran for Miss Rodeo Montana three times before winning the title," she said. She ran for the title the first time in 2002, and then competed again in 2003. She was unsure about trying a third time. "Last summer I worked at the Crazy Mountain Ranch near Clyde Park," she said. "I was waiting for the guests to arrive, and I was sitting on the back of a horse. I got to thinking about how I really love introducing the western way of life to people, and that's what Miss Rodeo Montana does." So she ran again, and this time won. Wilkins takes the job of Miss Rodeo Montana seriously. From her cell phone message to her e-mail address, to the signage on her blue Dodge Ram pickup, there is no doubt that she's Miss Rodeo Montana. The former Condon resident hopes to take that attitude all the way to the Miss Rodeo America pageant in Las Vegas in late November and win Montana's first title. Wilkins had a head start in being comfortable speaking before groups through her work as an MSU Ag Ambassador. "That was also how I got to know my agriculture professors better, and it gave me my first chance to travel the state," she said. It's estimated that Wilkins will log some 30,000 miles during her year as Miss Rodeo Montana, and even though the pace is hectic, she says she's going to enjoy herself because after a year, "it's all over." As for the future, Wilkins hopes to become a veterinarian, probably in a small town. "I like the big cities for about five days, and then I want to go back to Montana."