The Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo opened Friday for its 129th year. Livestock, horse shows, the carnival midway, food, and shopping are some of the favorites every year. And every year, there’s a souvenir that sells out. The commemorative scarf has become the must-have merch of the show. A rt Director Amy Myers has designed every scarf since the first one in 2013. The stock show prints a limited number every season – and every season, they sell out. With all her other duties this year, Myers admits, she was about out of ideas. “When the time came to design the ties and the scarves this year, you know, sometimes designing one every year can get a little cumbersome, you know, kind of come up with fresh ideas,” Myers said. The fresh ideas this year came from her interns from the Young Women’s Leadership Academy in the Fort Worth ISD. “We sort of were just free to play around. Amy just told us, you know, get your ideas out there, whatever, whenever you have the time,” said high school senior Emilly Castillo. Castillo and classmate Ederwee Htoo are in graphic arts and quickly settled on a theme. As high school seniors looking ahead to college, pennants are a big part of their world. And it became the turning point in their design. “I happened to be looking through their little art folder of ideas and saw this design that they had come up with. And I just thought it was really fantastic,” Myers said. Castillo and Htoo did most of their work back in the summer. When the school year started, their classes took priority, and there was limited time for the Stock Show. “One day we came into the office, and we saw the boxes, and we saw people repping them, people buying them. We were like, whoa, that design looks really familiar,” Castillo said. Myers took their design, made a few tweaks, a little color change here and there, and got just what she wanted – a fresh look at the familiar. “We’ve got our traditional bucking horse. There’s a Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo rope, a fun ear tag, just a lot of things that are representative,” Myers said as she pointed to images in the scarf. “I think it’s kind of fun because kind of the more you look, the more you see.” “We have had such a good time interning, and it has been like a really, really cool experience. So we definitely didn’t think it would get to this level. Maybe we’re still in shock to see our design,” Castillo said with a giggle. “Yeah, I was shocked,” added Htoo. “I knew our designs were good, but I didn’t think they would actually be used.” The friends admit they didn’t know much about the stock show before their internship, but came to understand and appreciate its history and legendary status. And now, their scarf is part of the story, too. “There’s going to be a lot of pride in that, knowing that we specifically made it seeing, seeing it on like an actual person, seeing it in real life,” said Htoo. Htoo and Castillo still have a few more months in high school, then it’s off to college, but the teenagers can already put custom silk scarf designer on their resumes. The $75 limited-edition scarf and $50 commemorative tie are sold at official merchandise booths. They often sell out in the first weekend of the show. ...read more read less