This year, Rock Valley celebrated its’ 24th year of the community event under the name ‘Rally in the Valley’. This event is ran by the Rock Valley Chamber of Commerce and is held during the second week of August every year as a way to celebrate the end of the summer. We love to see our community come together for all the fun events!
This year, the Chamber Board of Directors was determined to add even more events to the schedule in addition to community favorites. Ashley Feekes, Chamber Director, reached out to the community in hopes that community members would want to participate in the planning process. With this, Andrea Bajema (Double HH Mfg) and Shelly Hoogendoorn (Rock Valley Library) stepped up and met with Ashley to discuss new ideas!
Out of this committee meeting came new ideas like adding food stands to Cruise Night, Cardboard Boat Races at Rivers Bend Campground, and the Mud Volleyball Tournament, which Andrea and Shelly committed to working the weekend of Rally. It takes a village to run a week-long community event, and we are thankful for volunteers like Andrea and Shelly!
Every year, there are many events that are ran as fundraisers for various organizations and businesses in Rock Valley. This year was no different. On Thursday, August 10th, Sioux County Youth Fair board members and volunteers served nearly 800 people at the Community Meal. The Chamber chooses a non-profit Chamber member to serve the meal as a way to raise funds toward a project, which is why the meal is a free-will donation for the community. Total donation this year was $2,757!
The Sioux County Youth Fair wants Rock Valley to know that they are thankful for this opportunity, and they had a great time serving! This money will go toward their new fairgrounds.
An event that we added this year that was ran in a similar fashion was the ‘Family Fun Day’ event located at St. Mary’s Catholic Church and hosted by Project Youth Daycare, non-profit Chamber member. This seemed to be a favorite amongst the town, and we couldn’t agree more!
We raised $4,671 on Family Fun Day! It was so fun to see all of the kids enjoying the games and inflatables. We can’t wait to do it again next year!
Danica Lynn Director of Project Youth
The Rock Valley Chamber was able to provide the ‘entertainment’ for the day including the inflatables, petting zoo, fairytale characters, facepainting (Done by Cara and Hannah Suter), and the Dunk Tank. Project Youth put together the Kid Carnival with all the prizes and staff/parents volunteered to oversee the event that day. The community could enjoy these activities for a free-will donation, and $4,671 was raised toward the daycare fundraising account
Another event that raised money toward a good cause was the 19th Avenue Tailgate Party. This event is ran by Mike and Cara Suter every year, and is a town favorite as well! People sign up to cook an item of their choice to be judged on. The community is then allowed to purchase a wristband to enter and enjoy a box full of all the goodies that were made!
The money from the wristbands are given directly to a fundraising opportunity in the community, and this year, $6,032.00 was raised toward the new City Park renovations!
Thank you to all who are involved in this fundraising event every year. The Chamber appreciates all the hard work behind-the-scenes, cooks, volunteers, and especially the Suter’s who host such a fun event!
Other events that raise money toward the success of our community include the Rock River Run, a returning town favorite this year, Kiwanis Duck Race, and a new one this year, the Mud Volleyball Tournament! Ten teams entered this year, raising $1,300 toward the Rock Valley Pool. This event seemed to be popular among the high school and college aged students, which was exactly our goal when planning it! We had been told by many around the community that there weren’t many activities for this age group to enjoy. We knew some healthy competition would strike some interest! We can’t wait to see how many teams enter next year!
Overall, there were over 30 events from Wednesday to Sunday, August 9th-August 13th for our community and surrounding areas to choose from! From the Chamber Golf Tournament to kick off the week to Community Worship Service on Sunday, we truly feel that there was something for everyone to enjoy.
The Chamber Golf Tournament hosted 19 teams this year! This tournament is a way for our Chamber to give back to our members and for the businesses to give back to their employees by giving them an afternoon off from work and have some fun! This year, the Chamber decided to go bigger and better by providing prizes to ALL players in the tournament! There was a raffle at the end of the 18-hole tournament, where all players got to choose from gift cards to a variety of Chamber restaurants in town, 10 lb beef/pork tubes from Sunshine, and Golf balls donated from Premier and Peoples Banks. Top prizes included a $500 Chamber Gift Card and a 2023 Scotty Cameron Putter. Frosted Frog also donated a cooler for the Pin Prize game and tumblers were given to every player as well!
Many town favorites were enjoyed by the community including the Little Miss Rock Valley Pageant, Car Show, Fireman’s Challenge, Drive-Inn Movie Night, Crazy Days in the Valley, Ambulance Dessert Open House, and of course the Parade! We can’t wait until next year! (Save the date! Rally will be August 7-11 next year!)
We want to say a special thanks to all those who helped out! Whether you made a donation, volunteered your time, or helped plan events, we greatly appreciate it! It wouldn’t be the fun week it is without our amazing community members and businesses helping out!
