Community Report
In its first five years of operation, the Rox Community Foundation has raised over $340,000 for various charitable causes and has become a proud “teammate” to the many area communities in Central Minnesota. The Northwoods League recognized the Rox Foundation for its charitable gift-giving by naming it the recipient of their Community Program-of-the-Year in 2022 and in 2023.
Heading into the 2024 season, the Foundation has appropriated close to $35,000 to fund 14 individual grant awards while investing $76,000 in educational programs, including $16,000 in college scholarships alone for senior high school students during the recently concluded school year. The popularity of the Project S.A.V.E. scholarship program brought in 181 applications from 39 Central Minnesota cities.
The Foundation, with corporate support from Magnifi Financial, manages one of the largest interactive Reading Programs in the entire state of Minnesota which brought in over 16,000 students in 770 individual classrooms from 43 different elementary and middle schools in the region during the month of April (2023).
One month earlier (March, 2023), the Rox Foundation created the first-ever Fitness Program that served as a Pilot Program for seven of the area elementary schools in St. Cloud Area School District 742. This was a three-week initiative that challenged approximately 2,000 students in grades 3-5 to perform a fitness activity away from school for a period of 20 minutes each day. During the 2024 school year, this same program will register over 10,000 students that will take part, an increase of 400%.
For the past two years, the Foundation’s RBI Club has purchased over 5,000 Free Reading Books for close to 800 elementary students in two different schools from the St. Cloud Area School District 742. The program has been created to encourage students to Read Books Independently away from the classroom.
The Rox Community Foundation showed its might as well when it came to creating special fundraising events for non-profit organizations and team partners. The Foundation annually organizes a Sporting Clays Shoot-Out fundraiser at the Rice Creek Hunting Club in Little Falls through a partnership with the Wells corporate office in Albany. The 2023 event, for example, sold out all 30 team spots and raised over $61,000 for the Foundation.
The Foundation also created a second signature event: the Central Minnesota Challenge Cup Mini Golf Tournament. For the second straight year, the event sold out the complete 18-hole course at Lakes Adventure inside the Sauk Rapids Summerland Family Park. The fundraising event is held in partnership with NAPA AutoCare Center and the Central MN Auto Care Association to help raise scholarship funds to support college student education in the automotive industry.
As a sports team organization that has enjoyed a Northwoods League Championship and many successful seasons on the field, the St. Cloud Rox Baseball Club feels a very strong obligation to transfer that tradition and magic it has developed with the fans toward the bigger purpose of making a difference in the communities we serve through the team’s charitable foundation!
In closing, for those individuals and businesses that would like to consider making a tax- deductible contribution to the Rox Community Foundation, you can choose to make your donation on behalf of, in honor of, or in memory of a loved one.
For donors with significant assets, the Rox Foundation is also available to help maximize your tax benefits and charitable giving. Your special gift could come through the way of Appreciated Stocks, Mutual Funds, IRAs, Gifts by Will, etc.
