Fund Raising
Big Daddy Duck Race
One of our biggest fund raisers is the Big Daddy Duck race. We sell 10" rubber ducks to area businesses or individuals (but mostly businesses). The ducks are then decorated and returned to us to race in the river in downtown Rockford. We display the ducks in downtown business windows and create a float out of them for the Start of Summer celebration. We award trophies for the most popular duck (online voting), the prettiest duck (voting with money at our booth at Start of Summer), the fastest duck and the slowest duck. We give away books at our booth during the celebration and have a duck shoot with nerf guns for kids. Every shooter is a winner! It is a lot of work and a lot of fun. The money we raised goes back into the Rockford community.
Rotary Chicken BBQ
Each fall (late September) we hold a Chicken BBQ during the Rockford Harvest Festival. We mounted 4 Green Egg grills and a gas fueled warmer to a trailer and use it to cook chicken dinners from scratch. The BBQ is a lot of fun and really provides us with a good opportunity to hang out, work together and serve Rockford. Meals sell for $10 each and all proceeds are put back into the community.
Bottle and Can Return
We collect bottles and cans from the Rockford community year round to raise funds for community projects. It is a simple activity that helps out people in the community and allows us to put more money into Rockford projects (Garden Park Stage and Rockford Pavilion and more). We return the cans and bottles every 2 weeks.