Spark Goodness This Christmas Season
For over 130 years, it has been our honor to serve the Rockford community, and we are thrilled to announce the start of our biggest fundraiser of the year.
This year, we truly need our community’s support more than ever. While the Christmas season is a time of joy and celebration for many, countless individuals and families in our community face significant challenges—struggling to provide warm meals, wondering how to fill their children’s stockings, and feeling the weight of uncertainty as winter approaches.
This year, we have a fundraising goal of $220,000. Every donation stays within our community and supports our food pantry, disaster relief, youth initiatives, holiday assistance, rehabilitation services, and more. These services and programs are essential to those struggling in our community.
For example, in 2024:
- Our pantry served over 5,000 families—an increase of 19% from the previous year.
- We provided 176 months of utility assistance and 57 months of rental assistance.
- We distributed toys to 693 families, including 1,700+ children.
- Our Emergency Disaster Team has also been very busy supporting our first responders throughout the year. And most recently, they’ve been helping coordinate and send resources to support victims of the recent hurricanes.
We need your help to keep providing these crucial services. Our fundraising theme this year is Spark Goodness. Each coin that finds its way into our kettles helps to Spark Goodness in the community. From now until December 24, there will be over twenty Red Kettle locations throughout Winnebago County. If you don’t have cash on hand, each kettle has a QR code you can scan to make a quick and easy donation.
You can donate online at RockfordRedKettle.org. You can also sign up to fundraise and host your virtual kettle using that same link.
Besides donating directly to the kettles, one of the most significant ways you can help us this season is to register to become a bell ringer. Register to ring as an individual, family, team, or business. Go to registertoring.com, pick the time and location that’s most convenient for you, and sign up today. We have 700 volunteer hours filled already, but our goal is to fill approximately 4,000 more.
We’re proud to serve this community. Let’s continue to ‘Spark Goodness’ together!