In what can best be described as a remarkable, but hardly surprising, example of women bonding for a good cause, Thursday night’s Cowgirls & Cocktails exceeded all expectations when 750 women gathered in the National Western Stadium Arena for a fundraiser rich in both legacy and a nod to the future.

And, of course, for raising money for the Stock Show’s $150 million Honoring the Legacy capital campaign.

As committee member Kelly Maher wrote on her Facebook page Friday morning: “I love to say that my superpower is punching above my weight in the friend department, and that was on full display last night.”

Women “From all over wanted to come, some for the first time and others who’d been in the past and had told their friends about it,” Maher said as she helped greet each arrival. She added that several of her Wyoming friends made the drive to Denver to take part in the festivities.

Shannon Furgason, a committee member and sales executive for Kohler Co., was there with her friend since middle school, equestrienne Kristina Matthews, who with her Oldenburg horse, had won the amateur speed class jumping competition at the National Western Stock Show (NWSS) earlier in the week.

Others who’d donned their boots, buckles and clothing with a Western flair to enjoy cocktails and a buffet supper, along with music by The Castellows, were NWSS Director Brooke Fox, who also is president/CEO of the Colorado Agricultural Leadership Foundation; Kasia Iwaniczko MacLeod, secretary of the Colorado Mesa University board; Kristin Des Marais, executive director of the Bergen Spay and Neuter Alliance; Realtor Nancy Levine; Leigh Sullivan, a member of the Firefly Autism board of directors; and Dana Davis, who heads the Children’s Diabetes Foundation.

The brainchild of campaign Director Angela Lieurance, the $75-a-ticket Cowgirls & Cocktails was chaired by the daughters and daughters-in-law of campaign Chair Pete Coors and his wife, Marilyn: Molly Coors, Meredith Coors, Ashley Coors, Christi Ficeli, Melissa Osborn and Carrie Tynan.

For a $25 add-on, guests also could enjoy the evening’s rodeo from prime seats in the Denver Coliseum.

In her welcoming remarks, Carrie Tynan recalled how the event had grown from 125 guests in 2023 to last year’s 340 — a number that tested the capacity of the National Western Club. When RSVPs started flooding in for the 2025 edition, a decision was made to give everyone more elbow room by moving the 4 p.m. event to the more spacious Stadium Arena.

“Women from all over wanted to come,” Maher said.

As for future editions of this popular fundraiser, Tynan said: “I don’t know how big we thought Cowgirls & Cocktails would get, but just look at where we are tonight!”

Attorney Cynthia Treadwell believes much of the popularity stems from the fact that women are drawn to opportunities to connect. And that the price of admission is affordable.

“Everyone feels welcome,” she said. “We have moms of kids who are showing at the Stock Show, businesswomen like me who’ve ridden horses all their lives, and women who’ve never been on a horse before, or around farm animals. Angela (Lieurance), who is truly a tour de force, was really onto something when she started this.”

Committee member Cammie Grant, whose father, Pat Grant, is both a former state legislator and past president/CEO of the National Western Stock Show, described Cowgirls & Cocktails and its umbrella organization, Women of the National Western, as: “A gift to the Western way of life. It’s who we are.”

The youngest attendee was 5-year-old Jolie McEndaffer, who was stationed in a corner of the arena with her 11-month-old miniature Hereford heifer, Twinkle Star. Jolie is a member of a prominent Colorado cattle ranching family and is a fifth-generation participant in the stock show. Her grandfather, Guy McEndaffer, is a member of the NWSS board of directors.

NWSS board Chair Doug Jones — one of two men invited to attend (the other was Pete Coors) — pointed out that in addition to outgrowing the National Western Club, the change in venue was significant because this is the last year that Stadium Arena will be utilized, as construction continues on the Stock Show campus expansion and the opening for the 2026 NWSS of the  Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Livestock Center.