The Similkameen News Leader
Sports Page - August 19, 2008
PARK APPROVES McLEAN TRIBUTE
The Kenny McLean Project Committee has received approval from Centennial Park in Okanagan Falls, south of Penticton, to install a life-size bronze sculpture of Okanagan Falls's very own rodeo champion, Kenny McLean.
The bronze sculpture is estimated to be 18-feet high once complete.
The Honourable Stockwell Day, Bill Barisoff, Senator Ross Fitzpatrick and Director Bill Schwarz together with Okanagan Falls Heritage & Museum Society and the Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen invite the public to the Kenny McLean Miniature Statue Unveiling and Fundraising Campaign.
The ceremony is set to take place Tuesday, August 19th beginning at 2:00 PM in Centennial Park, Okanagan Falls, located at the corner of Highway 97 and Veterans Way.
To raise money for this project, the Committee will be selling 100 limited edition 18-inch replica bronzes for $2,500 each.
Kenny McLean was born May 13, 1939 in Penticton and resided in Okanagan Falls.
He started breaking colts for his father when he was just 12-years old and went on to rodeo competitions at the age of 17.
He won 14 Canadian Championships and in 1962 was the World Saddle Bronc Champion. McLean was inducted into the Canadian Rodeo Hall of Fame and was the only rodeo cowboy to be inducted into the BC Hall of Fame.
He also received Canada's highest honour, the Order of Canada, again, the only cowboy to receive such an honour.
During McLean's life he sponsored and ran rodeo schools, particularly for the young, training many future champions and many champions returned again and again to improve their skills at the sport.
McLean moved to Princeton in the early 1980's where he lived with his wife, Paula, in a mobile home near the stables at Princeton Fairgrounds.
There, McLean used the large indoor arena and the outdoor rodeo grounds for many of his training programs.
After a few years the McLean's moved to Montana.
The large indoor arena he had used at Princeton Fairgrounds was dedicated the OKenny McLean Memorial Arena' this past May by the Princeton Rodeo Club to honour McLean and to recognize his contribution to local rodeo activities.
McLean never gave up his passion for rodeo and continued to encourage young competitors right up until he passed away on July 13, 2002.
The Kenny McLean Project Committee has received some support from Regal Ridge (Adrian Erickson), Greyback Construction (Larry Kenyon), Okanagan Electric and Community Futures.
