12/25/2019
RRStar

We hope you had a good Christmas with friends and family and are happy with the time and treasure you received. As a community, we received a few nice gifts early. We’re sure we will enjoy them many times over. Hotel Kate: Peter and Heather Provenzano made an inspired decision to name the city’s first boutique hotel after Kate F. O’Connor, a businesswoman, suffragist and supporter of the YWCA that operated at what is now referred to as the Millennium Center. O’Connor, an 1878 graduate of Rockford High School, fought for a woman’s right to vote and was recognized by a national suffrage organization for her work in 1929 alongside Jane Addams. The $14 million, 47-room hotel is scheduled to open in late summer 2020. The name and the hotel opening are wonderful ways to honor the centennial of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote. The Provenzanos didn’t stop there. They also made a $5,000 donation to The Women’s Suffrage Centennial 2020 Northern Illinois Celebration steering committee’s mosaic sculpture project. The $75,000 sculpture will be a community work of art. More details will become public shortly after the new year. Patience, persistence and passion for his community have made Provenzano a community leader who gets things done. He first told the Editorial Board about his vision for a vibrant downtown in 2009. Rockford City Market was the venture that got things rolling. An indoor market became a reality this year and now the hotel will increase the activity downtown. Hotel Kate and the Gorman & Co.’s 160-room Embassy Suites Hotel across the river from it are pieces that Rockford’s downtown has needed for decades. We eagerly await the first events at those hotels. Dr. Martens Sponsored by DSW See More Big contract for Woodward: A $54 million contract refurbishing hydro-mechanical units in U.S. Army helicopters is the kind of deal that helps justify Woodward Inc.’s investment in the community. Woodward opened a $250 million facility at Harlem and Perryville roads in 2015. It was the largest building project in Winnebago County history at the time. It was eclipsed by Mercyhealth’s $505 million complex that opened in January. According to the website governmentcontractswon.com, which tracks awards to the thousands of companies supplying the U.S. military, Woodward’s Loves Park operations have won $350.2 million in defense contracts this decade. Woodward, which was founded in Rockford in 1870 and now is headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado, is one of the area’s largest employers and its work with the military will ensure it remains so for years to come. That’s good news for the entire community. A bunch of books: A child’s ability to read is an important part of his or her development and education. Unfortunately, third-graders are not reading at grade level in just about every northern Illinois school district. The key is to get children to start their love for reading early. Enter Transform Rockford, which gave out more than 5,000 children’s books to seven early learning centers and elementary schools. The goal is to bridge the winter break reading gap by putting books in the hands of young students. The better they know how to read, the better they will learn math, science and all the subjects they need to know to succeed in life. Education is the key to a safer, more prosperous community, and reading is a building block for learning. Kudos to the team at Transform Rockford for recognizing that and acting. More good news about learning: The Boys & Girls Club of Rockford recently received a grant of $20,000 from the FCA Foundation, the charitable arm of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. The money will be used to help fund the Academic Success program, an after-school program being used at all five local B&G Clubs and two satellite locations. The Boys & Girls Clubs have become a place for children to learn. The fun and games still are there, but more and more they are a reward for academic achievement. It’s important to reinforce how important education is to a child’s success. Kudos to officials of the clubs for doing so. Keep Strolling along: Kudos to Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau CEO John Groh for his commitment to keeping Stroll on State, the annual festival the Saturday after Thanksgiving, going despite financial losses this year. Groh said his agency will absorb the losses that were incurred because attendance was down and rain ended the festival early. Stroll on State has become a holiday tradition and we’re sure if there’s better weather in 2020 attendance will soar


For More Information:
https://www.rrstar.com/opinion/20191225/our-view-five-christmas-gifts-for-community-that-came-early