KISSIMMEE, Fla. – Did you know the 34744 ZIP code has a “Big Boss” in charge of one of the biggest organizations in the area?
We’re talking about the Silver Spurs Riding Club and this year, for just the third time in its 80-year history, that boss is a cowgirl.
Sara Berlinsky is a lifelong Osceola County resident and has spent much of her life volunteering with the riding club. Her first job at age 16 was working at the Silver Spurs Arena.
“I actually sold snow cones in the old arena. That was my first job,” Berlinsky said.
The Silver Spurs Riding Club got its start in the early 1940s when a group of local ranchers got together for an informal Quadrille, kind of like a square dance on horseback. It didn’t take long before that act of fellowship turned into philanthropy.
“In 1944, they threw their first official dress rodeo and the price of admission was a war bond,” Berlinsky said.
Today, it takes an army of volunteers to keep all their traditions alive. Every year, the riding club elects a new Big Boss to organize the rodeos and raise even more money for local charities.
“It truly is an honor. I do love the Spurs. I love what we do in the community, and I loved growing up around it. It means a lot to be voted in to lead and it’s my way of giving back,” Berlinsky said.
For the past two decades, Berlinsky has been at the forefront of planning the Special Rodeo. It’s a mock rodeo to give children with special needs an up-close look at horses, roping and other rodeo events.
“It’s my favorite thing and we have no shortage of volunteers,” Berlinsky said.
Including her own two sons, who first arrived at the arena in their car seats and have been helping out ever since, watching the rodeos and their traditions grow in the 34744 community.
“It has changed from a really small town where everyone knew each other to, I think, a really big town where a lot of people still know each other, but it’s just gotten a lot bigger,” Berlinsky said.
Since 2000, the Silver Spurs Riding Club has raised more than $500,000 for charities.
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