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Rockford Rotary Helps Plant Trees in Memorial Park
On May 1st, Rockford Rotary helped other volunteers and the City of Rockford plant 27 trees in Memorial Park behind the Community Cabin in Downtown Rockford.    The tree planting is in celebration of Arbor Day and is in line with the City's ongoing sustainability program.  It was a super nice day to be outside doing something active.  We look forward to partnering with the City on more projects throughout the year.  If you want to be a part of future projects like this and are interested in joining Rockford Rotary, please take a minute to fill out our new member form here: LINK. 
Rockford Rotary 2021 Big Daddy Duck Race
Rockford Michigan Rotary Big Daddy Duck RaceWe have been selling Big Daddy Ducks throughout the spring.  We have close to 200 entries for the race. We will race the ducks this year on Saturday June 12th.  The race will occur even if Start of Summer is not able to take place due to COVID. The race will be at 5 p.m. It will start at the dam in Rockford and end in Richardson-Sowerby Park on the other side of the bridge.  Please come down and see the race. It is always a  lot of fun, and it is something that you don't see very often (large rubber ducks - many of which are decorated in all different ways - floating down the river).  Come see the ducks before the race as well.  We will display them all day on the 12th.  You can pick a favorite duck and vote for it with money.  The duck with the most money in its jar at the end of the day will win a trophy for the Prettiest Duck in Rockford.  Look for announcements on this website and our facebook page about voting online for each duck.  Online voting starts on May 31st.  We will award trophies for the fastest and slowest ducks in the river race.  Any person or family or business can enter the race.  To enter the race, you need to make a donation of $100 to Rockford Rotary.  It is still not too late to purchase a duck.  If you would like to purchase one, simply fill out our duck request form HERE.  We will get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you for supporting Rockford Rotary! 
Rockford Rotary Can Drive Nets Big Check for City - Thank you Rockford!
Due to the generous support by the Rockford community of the Rotary Club of Rockford’s fundraiser, Rotarians Jim Tol, President and Erik Luxhoj, Secretary were able to present a check for $30,000 to Rockford City Manager Thad Beard and Mayor Ed to help fund the new Stage at Garden Park.

According to Beard construction on the new stage is slated for this spring with the goal to have the new stage ready for summer concerts in park.

The Rotary Club has on ongoing can and bottle return drop off site at Knape Industries Inc, 10701 Northland Drive, Rockford. The trailer is available for drop-offs 24/7 to make it easy to donate.
 
 
 
Meeting Alert
Please note that even if our meeting location is shown as the Rockford Community Cabin or Bivins Farm, we are meeting virtually right now. If you want to join us at one of our meetings, please email Erik Luxhoj at eluxhoj@luxhojconsulting.com for the zoom link. The meetings are Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. - Rockford Rotary
2020 Chicken BBQ a Great Success
The 2020 Rotary Chicken BBQ was held over the weekend of September 25th/26th.  We didn't know how it would go because of COVID, and the weather is always a huge variable.  Well, everything went really well. The weather was beautiful, the awesome people of Rockford came out and enjoyed the car show, art show and some BBQ chicken downtown.  We cooked over 1000 chicken dinners in two days on our 4 green eggs.  Thank you to everyone who stopped by to encourage us and buy some chicken.  We really appreciate it!  We did run out of meals. For that we apologize.  If you bought a ticket ahead of time but didn't get a meal, please stop by Knape Industries on 10701 Northland Drive in Rockford. We will be happy to refund your ticket. 

Thank you again for all who helped make this year's BBQ a big success! See you next year.
2020 Duck Voting
We have a winner! The PJF duck was voted the Most Popular Duck in Rockford! Their duck received 1130 votes which is a ton! Second place went to Choice One Bank with 560 votes. Third place was North Kent Connect duck which just barely edged out Rogue Valley Vet and Gorillatechs. The PJF duck (shown below) will receive a traveling trophy that they can display at their place of business for a year. Thank you everyone who participated! Please come see the ducks race rain or shine on August 8th at 4 p.m. in downtown Rockford at the dam. The ducks will start at the dam and race to Sowersby Park. The race usually takes about 16 minutes, but recent rains could shorten that time. Come out and see all the ducks. Thanks again!
- Rockford Rotary
 
 
You can view some of the decorated ducks here: DECORATED DUCKS GALLERY.   If your duck's picture is not shown, please email it to us at eluxhoj@luxhojconsulting.com.  We will be happy to post it as soon as possible. 
2020 Duck Race Results
A big thank you to everyone who came downtown to see the duck race on Saturday!  We had a lot of fun, and it was a very close finish.  
 
Here are the results:
Fastest Duck - Car Care Center Cedar Springs - this was an extremely close finish.  Car Care was third with about 60 feet to go. Then the leader (West Michigan Investigations) inexplicably went dead in the water and Care Care caught the current.  The duck touched first and then went under the barrier. We had to lunge for it to stop it from going down river.  It was an exciting finish with a lot of spectators cheering on the ducks.  
Slowest Duck - Sable Homes.  They edged out Heather J. Cadorette's Tiger King duck for last.  
 
The Prettiest Duck in Rockford (determined by the amount of money collected in the duck's donation jar while on display downtown) is Integrity Tax Service's duck.   
 
As previously announced, the PJF duck was voted the Most Popular Duck in Rockford. They are a multi-year winner of that title.  
 
You can see all the ducks and duck winners here:  CLICK.
 
Thanks again for everyone who came down to watch the race, donated and or participated. We had a great time with the event and look forward to a bigger field of ducks next year.  
 
Stay safe!
 
Bottle Return Program
January 11, 2021
Our bottle return fund raiser has turned into a permanent fund raiser. We have a trailer at 10701 Northland Dr. NE, Rockford, MI where you can drop off cans any time of day.  We will periodically return the cans whenever we get enough piled up to return. Our overall goal is $100,000.  We will put that money back into the community.  Thank you for your support!
 
All the best – the Rockford Rotary Club
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WHAT WE DO
The Rotary Club of Rockford Michigan sponsors or hosts several events throughout the year. 
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WHAT WE DO
We support several local and international projects throughout the year. 
 
STRIVE
Rockford Rotary sponsors and actively runs a program called STRIVE that pairs adult mentors with senior high school students.  The students are identified by the schools as being in danger of not graduating. Many of them simply need more help and/or an involved adult to get them over the hump and keep them motivated.  We award scholarships to the students for different things like highest GPA, most improvement, etc.  It is a very rewarding experience for mentors and students alike.
 
The Big Daddy Duck Race
Rockford area businesses purchase ducks and decorate them for the race.  We build a float each year and display the ducks in the parade.  We also give out candy which is a lot of fun!  The 10" ducks are on display in our booth at the Start of Summer Celebration in downtown Rockford. People vote for their favorite duck by placing coins or bills in the jar next to it.  We count up the money and award a "prettiest duck" trophy to the winner.  Saturday evening of the Start of Summer Celebration, we put the ducks in the water in front of the dam and race them to Richardson-Sowersby park.  We award a trophy for the "fastest" duck.  The money raised goes to local programs including sponsorship of the summer reading program at Hillview in Rockford. 
 
Reading Rocks in Rockford
Reading Rocks in Rockford started as a Rotary event and we created the event to encourage literacy in our town.  Recently, the Rockford Library has taken over the event and hosts it in early June.  The goal is to get kids excited about reading and to keep them reading all summer.  Authors of children books attend the event and interact with young readers.  We help setup tents the event, and we staff the Hook-a-Book tent each year.  At Hook-a-Book, young readers receive a free book just for throwing their fishing line into the "water" and reeling it back in.  It is a very rewarding service experience for Rotarians.
 
Youth Exchange
Our club supports an inbound and outbound international exchange student - often yearly.  Our current inbound student is from Brazil.  We find host families and support the student any way that we can to enrich both the community's and the student's exchange experience. 
 
Life Leadership Conference
Each year we sponsor 6 or 7 Rockford High School students to attend the Life Leadership Conference sponsored by the Rotary International District 6290.  Students are chosen for their leadership potential and scholarship.  Interviews take place in the spring of each year.  To read more about the conference follow this LINK.
 
POLIO Plus
Rotary International's longtime goal has been to eliminate polio worldwide.  We are in fact very close to doing that LINK. We support the district and international Rotary organization's effort in the fight against polio. 
2021 Duck Race Sponsors
End Polio Now
Help us end polio now!
Speakers
Blaine Kellermeier
May 11, 2021 12:00 PM
Serving in your community
Distric Governor - Jon Caitlin
May 18, 2021 12:00 PM
Special Presentations by the DG
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