Amber Johnson, Salem, OR

What being a cowgirl means to me.
Simply stated… I have your back and I am here for you.

I have now served as Queen of the Capital City Cowgirls for the past year and a half. What an honor this has been. I have met so many AMAZING cowgirls. Women I am so proud to call my friends. The 40 Something Cowgirls has been life changing for me and I want to thank our founder Kristi Williams for following her dream and bringing this wonderful organization together. I remember when we had our first meeting and I was crowned Queen. My first thought was, how on earth am I ever going to fit this in to my already crazy schedule? I have no time. Now I laugh as I cannot imagine my life without the cowgirls. I make time for our events and I actually find myself planning my other life activities around our cowgirl events. It’s funny how your life’s priorities change. I find myself attending between 8-10 events a month as well as hosting at least one event every month. I know these are real friendships. The ones that are solid to the core. The strength of the cowgirls become evident this past April, when we had several cowgirls go down on the injured list. Sadly we had several cowgirls down and unfortunately many at the same time. But never fear, the cowgirls were here! With the technology of today I was able to put out the call to start the meal train via e-mail ASAP. What is a meal train you ask? It is like the old phone tree. Remember those? I simply emailed the cowgirls in our local chapter as well as the Queens of a few surrounding chapters asking for cowgirls to donate a frozen meal for our cowgirls in need. I could not believe the amount of support that poured in to help. Cowgirls helping cowgirls and in many cases, many of these cowgirls have never even met. The 40 Something Cowgirls are a united group. I LOVE this and think it speaks volumes to the kind of amazing women that are in this organization. Within one week we had many, many meals, donations of money from several that could not contribute food and an outpouring of offers to help clean stalls, drive the injured to their doctors’ appointments, care for horses and simply be there for the cowgirls that were down.

I simply feel blessed to be the Queen of my chapter and know that the cowgirls are simply some of the best women I have ever met. I am looking forward to being there for not only the cowgirls in my chapter but other cowgirls across the country as well. Never in a million years could I have imagined where the cowgirls would take me. My heart is full, my face wears a smile and my life has been forever changed. I feel honored to be a cowgirl.

With all my love, Queen Amber Johnson, Salem, OR