By Wiley Henry
MEMPHIS, TN — Nearly 50 children in Memphis will get an opportunity to attend the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo on Saturday, April 13, at the Agricenter ShowPlace Arena, 105 S. Germantown Parkway in Cordova, TN.
Thanks in part to a generous donation to Abundant Earth Global, a community development corporation seeking to end poverty in the Frayser community through education, the children will attend the rodeo for free.
“One of our associates that supports our Abundant Earth Success Academy, Mr. George Summers, wanted to work with us to see if some of our students wanted to go to the Bill Pickett Rodeo,” said Edith Ann Moore, board chairperson of the CDC.
The Abundant Earth Success Academy was a 9-week pilot program the CDC offered in 2023 on Saturdays to enhance the reading, math, and music skills of children in first through the fifth grade.
However, some of the children that attended the academy and now attending the rodeo live in the 38127 zip-code area of Frayser, a thriving low-income community where Abundant Earth Global is located at 847 Whitney Ave.
“Last year was our first outing,” said Moore, also a minister and former Shelby County commissioner. “We had 15 children and their parents. We took them to the rodeo. Also, we gave them lunch at McDonald’s before we went. That’s what got it started.”
The rodeo features Black cowboys and cowgirls performing calf roping, bull riding, bronc riding (bucking horse), bareback riding, and bulldogging, where a cowboy or cowgirl drops from a horse and wrestles a steer to the ground.
Two shows are scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at billpickettrodeo.com or you can call Miss Kitty for more information at 901-487-4722.
Bill Pickett (William M. Pickett) was a Black cowboy, rodeo performer, and actor who was born in Jenks Branch, Texas, on Dec. 5, 1870. He died in Ponca City, Okla., at the age of 61.
The Bill Pickett Rodeo is celebrating 40 years and bills itself as “The greatest show on dirt.” Some kids have never been to the rodeo, said Moore, or may not know anything about Bill Pickett.
But they are interested nevertheless, she said. “What it does is give them something to look forward to the next opportunity, to do something, and to go places. It instills discipline.”
The rodeo may be a bulldogging experience for the children, but the CDC’s overall goal is to “end poverty through education and ingenuity,” said Moore, who along with her daughter, Ester B. Moore, have been working diligently to bring the CDC’s goal to fruition.
The CDC was launched in 2018. Ester B. Moore is a co-founder and executive director. Lee Eric Smith Sr., a multi-media journalist, is also a co-founder of the Memphis-based non-profit.
“The idea came from wanting to grow food,” said Ester Moore, who taught tomato classes for the University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension. She also taught farming classes.
“We got started in the agriculture and kind of farming framework,” she said. “So, we started growing from the house and decided we were going to teach other people in the community how to grow.”
After a year of so she decided she’d spend most of her time educating people, such as “introducing new words and definitions, and going over fractions…how to measure.” Then she approached the board. After a little retooling, education became the CDC’s driving force.
“Of course, education covers many different areas,” she said. “Now we have our own building, our own land, and a couple of project houses we’re looking to fix up that we got from the land bank.”
Ester Moore said the team is moving full steam ahead. “We are growing a community, but you can’t grow a community unless you grow the people in the community.”
To make a financial donation, contact Abundant Earth Global by email at AEGCDC@GMAIL.COM or call 901-209-9411.
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