Rockton Roscoe Rotary Club Rib Fest supports community and education

Family feasting is coming to Viking Lanes in South Beloit on Saturday, July 26, 2025 in the Rockton-Roscoe Rotary Club Rib Fest, as four fire departments - Harlem-Roscoe, Shirland, Rockton, and alumni from South Beloit - prepare to turn up the heat on their competition for a fifth year.

Try your favorite ribs, each made from special recipes by local firefighters, and vote to help one of the firehouses win the coveted “Rack of Ribs” trophy.

Rotary member Ted Rehl is the 2025 Rib Fest Chair.

The event is at Viking Lanes, 210 Oak Grove Ave. in South Beloit, with action starting at 11:30 a.m. and running until 2 p.m., or until they run out of ribs.

Admission is $15 a plate, which includes rib tasting, sides, and a chance to cast a vote on your favorite ribs.

Service Above Self is the motto of the Rockton-Roscoe Rotary Club. One of many ways that the club serve the communities and beyond is by raising funds used for educational purposes through the annual Rib Fest.

All proceeds from this event are used to support the club's Rockton Roscoe education fund. Through these efforts, they help provide books to elementary school students and libraries and scholarships for Hononegah Community High School and South Beloit seniors.

Hybrid meetings allows club members to meet both in person and virtually. Meetings are held the first and third Wednesday of each month at Sophia's Restaurant in Roscoe, with social events each quarter. To contact the Rockton-Roscoe Rotary Club, you can go to their website https://portal.clubrunner.ca/8404/. New members are always welcome.

Rotary International's tagline is “People of Action.” This year the Rotary awarded “Outstanding Youth Award” scholarships to HCHS seniors Avani Joshi and Emerson Czizek and and South Beloit senior Audrianna Mahlum.

The Rotary had a total of 17 applicants, who may plan to attend either college or trade school. Fourteen were from Hononegah Community High School and three were from South Beloit. Based on school size, the Rotary awards two scholarships to students from Hononegah and one to a student from South Beloit. Finalists are selected to do an interview with the Rotary scholarship committee.

Scholarship winners must have demonstrated community service, academic achievement, and leadership in school and community activities.

The Rotary Club promotes literacy by providing books to librarians in Rockton, Roscoe, Shirland and South Beloit schools as well as to North Suburban Library in Roscoe, and Talcott Free Library in Rockton. These books often supplement a possible shortage of books for readers.

Furthering educational opportunities, the club has participated in a design competition with CEANCI (Career Education Assistance of North Central Illinois).
The winner, a female graphic arts student at Hononegah, created a new brochure for the Rotary. CEANCI is a program designed to prepare and to invest in all students for career and college through partnerships that build innovative regional opportunities.

The Rotary backs an “Interact Club” that is incorporated into local schools - Rotary for ages 12-18. This service club has a minimum of two events in the fiscal year, one for the school and one for the community.

Recently the Rotary sponsored a student from Harlem High School who spent a year in Taiwan as a Rotary Youth exchange student.

Most recently, members rolled up their sleeves to completing a pollinator plot at Kinnikinnick Elementary School, providing nectar and pollen for bees, butterflies and other essential pollinators. The club is looking for volunteers to help with weeding and watering, or through a donation of plants .If interested or available contact Bobbi Burke at Bobbi.burke6420@gmail.com.

The local Rotary Club was chartered on June 3, 1959, with 22 members. They met on Mondays at noon at the Wagon Wheel Resort and the first president was George Wm. Franzen.

Originally called the Rotary Club of Rockton, it represented Rockton, Roscoe, Shirland, and Harrison.

In time the club name was changed to the Rotary Club of Northern Winnebago County and later changed to Rockton-Roscoe Rotary Club in November 2019.

Former Rockton school superintendent Glenn Terry serves as the current club president. Several other school administrators are members and remain active year round, lending a hand anywhere they can.

Since January 2020 they have served and provided breakfast for Carpenters Place in Rockford, an outreach that continues today. They have also extended help to the Rockford Rescue Mission.

In July 2020, during the COVID pandemic, the Roscoe Rockton Rotary club participated in assembling 3,125 face shields. They also donated 100 face shields each to Fair Oaks in South Beloit and Highview in the Woodlands in Rockton. They organized a End Polio Now Walk at Hononegah to raise funds for the Polio Plus Foundation. Two countries in the world are still not considered polio-free: Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In 2022 the club participated in the Rockford 1M Meal Packing Event. They have helped deliver food to the cars for the South Beloit Food Pantry drive-thru. Rotary blood drives have aided in saving lives. The Rockton- Roscoe Rotary was the winner of a sustained literacy award at the Rotary District 6420 Conference in April 2024.

The Rotary is a strong supporter of the Winnebago County 4-H program, with sponsorship for the Grand Champion Overall Pair-Pen of Standard Chickens and the Champion Computer Generated Art.