Real Bucking Deal Lives Up to Their Name at Crowd-pleasing Buck Off Challenge to Benefit Southeast Florida Honor Flight
Wellington, FL (February 19, 2024) – The real deal Real Bucking Deal lived up to their name with a dominating victory in the sixth annual Buck Off Challenge events on Sunday night (Feb. 18) at the Wellington Community Center.
The family-friendly mechanical bull-riding Buck Off Challenge drew a large, enthusiastic crowd that included more than a dozen veterans and raised more almost $45,000 for the Stuart-based Southeast Florida Honor Flight.
Southeast Florida Honor Flight is an all-volunteer, 501c3 non-profit organization that flies World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War veterans to Washington, D.C. to visit the memorials built to honor their service and sacrifices.
They provide four flights a year. Each flight costs more than $140,000 to bring approximately 80 veterans to Washington, DC, free of charge. The next trip is scheduled for April 6 and is the chapter’s 50th flight.
Real Bucking Deal (Donnie Mills, Abby Herrin, Hailey Grumbar, Nadine Allen) and sponsored by Sanjiv Sharma and Nadine Allen, finished with 377 points, led by Mills with a score of 96 points (out of a possible 100).
Second place went to team Iron Horse sponsored by Iron Horse Transit (Dean Dignelli, Chelsea Coyle, Jonathan Corrigan, Christian Coyle) with 281 points while We’re Bucking Patriotic sponsored by Madison Sport Horses (Chloe Reimer, Sean Messer, Alex Hyatt, David Fuentez) placed third with 265 points.
Several other awards were handed out to spotlight memorable achievements.
We’re Bucking Patriotic was voted the Most Entertaining team and Victoria Roman won top honors for the Highest Scoring Youth age 12 and under with a perfect 100.
The Highest Scoring Rookie was Chelsea Coyle, wife of grand prix rider Christian Coyle, with a perfect 100 score, and the Highest Scoring Individual that did not win a champion buckle in any other category was Chloe Reimer.
Celebrity judges were Lenore Brown, Director of Sponsorship for Wellington International, Marine Kevin O’Brien, who is Commandant of General A.A. Vandegrift Detachment 68 of the Marine Corps League, and Wellington’s own Roxanne Stein, the popular anchor and reporter for WPTV West Palm Beach for 25 years. But the biggest celebrity and crowd favorite among the judges was 99-year-old World War II veteran and American hero Carmin Yannotta of West Palm Beach, who survived D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge.
The main sponsors of the Buck Off Challenge were the Village of Wellington; Janet Hoose and Madison Sport Horses, Triple Crown Group, philanthropists Sanjiv Sharma and Nadine Allen and Carolex Stables.
Other major sponsors included Soldier Rush, IDA Development, IDA Farm, Barnwalkers, Iron Horse Transit, Specialty Management, HCA Florida Health, All Pro Pools, and Florida Coast Equipment.
VIP guests were treated to delicious dinner options from Wellington restaurants Bolay, and PDQ.
The event was designed and produced by Bobbi Rottman of Eques Solutions to use it as a unique fundraiser for various charities.
She has grown this event into one of the largest fundraisers for Southeast Florida Honor Flight.
For more information about Southeast Florida Honor Flight, visit www.honorflightsefl.org. or www.facebook.com/honorflight.