Rock Falls Rotary donated $250 to support the non-profit organization Path to the Future which provided meals to 72 families at Thanksgiving and 110 families at Christmas in our community.  President Jenn Schultz(left) presents the check to organization founders Emily Juist and Devon Nicklaus (right).

 

Staff at Rock Falls High School selected the September Rotary Student of the Month Ian Finney (left) and October Rotary Student of the Month Kat Scott (right) based on the character traits of Rotarians who lives their life based on The Four Way Test: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build good will and better friendships? Is it beneficial to all concerned? Bob Sondgeroth (center) is Rock Falls Rotary SOM Committee Chair.

 

Four members and two guests gathered to share social time on the first such fifth Monday of the month on Monday, Sept. 29. Plan the next fifth Monday of the month to join other RF Rotarians.

 

 

Cheryl Lee (right), Rock Falls Rotarian, presents to Kalie Conklen (left) a check for $500 from the Rock Falls Rotary Club to support the Penguin Project in their annual theatrical performance.

Betty Clementz, Membership Committee Chair, (left) welcomed the members of the first corporate membership of Sauk  Valley Bank inducted into Rock Falls Rotary (left to right) Christine Wolf, Joe Stouffer, Gina Smith, and Suzy Perino. Joe is the designated  member of Rotary International and the corporate associate memberships assist in local community service of the Rock Falls Rotary.

 

Rock Falls High School Rotary Students selected each month by RFHS staff was based on the Rotary 4 Way Test of things Rotarians say, think and do: 1. Is it the truth? 2. Is it fair to all concerned? 3. Will it build goodwill and better friendship? 4. Is it beneficial to all concerned? Students and their parents were honored with dinner and a gift recently by Rock Falls Rotary. From left to right and the month of their selection: Luke Hacker, April; Michael Ely, Jr., August; Addy Watts, October; Maddison Morgan, November; Syndie Flaningam, January; Kaylee Johnson, May; Ariel Hernandez, March; Bob Sondgeroth, Rock Falls Rotarian Youth Committee. Absent are: Carolyn Masini, September; McKenkenzie Woodard, December; and Zoey Near, February.

 

The Ninth Annual End Polio Now Walk was sponsored this year by the Rotary clubs of the Sauk Valley Area: Dixon, Morrison, Rock Falls, Sterling Noon, and Twin Cities Sunrise. Twenty five Rotarians and guests walked the Hennepin Canal site to the Rock River and back on October 12 th in an awareness of the need to eradicate polio as a disease from our world. Since 1988 Rotary has been involved in the eradication of polio along with WHO, Gates Foundation, and other entities. In that year over 250,000 persons annually worldwide would be diagnosed with polio and for many it was a death sentence. Today in 2024 only a worldwide total of a handful of wild polio virus cases in Afghanistan and Pakistan have been recorded, so the reduction in cases has been 99.99% successful. But it is these very last cases that need to be stamped out to eradicate fully polio as a disease. We are truly that close!

 

Rotarians are asked to donate to the Rotary Foundation program of Polio Plus which is the source of Rotary funding the worldwide effort. All sponsoring club donations to Polio Plus from July 1 through the end of October were encouraged to support the eradication effort which culminates on World Polio Day on October 24. At this time the total donation of the members of the five sponsoring Rotary clubs is $4,300 which will be tripled by the Gates Foundation matching monies for a total of $12,900.

The public is always invited to join in the walk and the Tenth Annual End Polio Now Walk will be scheduled for October 11, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. at Centennial Park in Rock Falls.

 

 

 

Twenty five Rotary Club members and guests gathered on Saturday, October 12 at Centennial Park in Rock Falls to create an awareness on the need to
eradicate polio in our lifetime. Rotarians of the sponsoring clubs donated a total of $4,300 to the Polio Plus Rotary Foundation program which the Gates Foundation then tripled into $12,900.

 

Major Chuck Yockey of the Salvation Army (left) receives a check in donation from the President of Rock Falls Rotary Shane Brown (right) for the Red Kettle campaign which helps those in need in our community. 

Rock Falls Rotary Club inducted a new member to their membership: Angie Howard (center), a Reading Specialist at Montmorency School. With her is her sponsor, Betty Clementz and Bob Sondgeroth, President of Rock Falls Rotary.

 

President of Rock Falls Rotary Bob Sondgeroth presents to Betty Clementz (left), Chair of RFL of Sauk Valley and Cheryl Faber (middle), Sponsorship Chair of RFL of Sauk Valley, a check for the club's sponsorship of the annual American Cancer Society event on June 8 th at Westwood Sports Complex, Building 3 from 5 - 9 p.m.