STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK

PHOTOS BY JOHN BOYDSTON

Another round of the popular Days of the Old West Rodeo is in the bag for the Sawtooth Rangers.

Teens strutted up and down the bleachers hoping to be seen, while barrel racers put on a good show as they sailed around the barrels.

Unfortunately, not all went smoothly for all of those who attended.

Calli Andrews, who was visiting family in Hailey with her three children, said she was rebuffed when she asked for ADA seating for her middle son who uses a wheelchair.

“A staff member angrily shoved a garbage can aside and said, ‘I guess it’s here,’ ” she recounted.

Andrews said her son and another wheelchair user were directed to sit next to garbage cans because that was the rodeo’s designated accessible seating. A third wheelchair user was placed in a so-called “ADA respite” area off to the side, without a companion seat.

“Accessible seating must include companion seating, be integrated throughout the venue, and provide people with disabilities a viewing experience comparable to every other ticket holder,” she said. “People who use wheelchairs should never be segregated, isolated or treated as an afterthought.”

Placing paying guests with disabilities next to garbage cans is degrading, communicating that they are less important than everyone else in attendance, Andrews added.

“My son deserves to enjoy a hometown rodeo with the same dignity, respect, and opportunity as every other child,” I hope the rodeo can bring its seating into compliance. No one should ever be made to feel that the appropriate place for them is beside the trash.

The Ted Uhrig Rodeo Arena, built in 2011, is designated as accessible with ADA-compliant parking and wheelchair-accessible viewing areas near the grandstand seating. But, perhaps, it might have been a totally different experience for the out-of-town visitors had the greeter made an attempt to be more accommodating. And maybe not make a garbage can a conspicuous seating partner.

Compare this with the experience of Kate Daly, who recounted how she had been leading a group of out-of-town visitors on a trip up to the top of Bald Mountain when she realized one of the ladies now used a cane.

Sun Valley employees couldn’t have been more helpful, she said, with two young men taking the women’s arms and offering her a fun-natured assist to the Roundhouse. The woman had a lovely time thanks, in no small part, to the generous spirit of those men. And what could have been an unhappy crisis was averted.