The Rockford IceHogs Community Fund (ICF) has awarded $152,000 in grants to support 12 Rockford area organizations for the fiscal year 2026 grant cycle. Six of this year’s grants are renewals supported by the ICF last year, two are awards to organizations the ICF supported two years ago, and four recipients are new partners this year.

Supporting youth sports programs with an emphasis on growing the game of hockey continues to be a primary area of focus for the ICF as four of this year’s grants will support hockey programs in the Rockford region.  

The largest award is a $40,000 grant to Rockford Hockey Club (RHC), bringing the four-year grant award total from the ICF to RHC to $90,000. Those grant dollars have helped RHC reduce costs at the 8U level and bring in 50 new players over the last three years. About half of this year’s grant dollars to RHC will be utilized to reduce fees for 8U players and recruit another 20 new players into the system. This impact has a “trickle-up” effect for RHC that allows for additional fundraising efforts to keep costs more affordable at all levels and keep participation strong across every age group.  

The other half of the $40,000 grant will support the RHC's initiative to start an all-girls program. A portion of funding from the previous two years of grants from the ICF to RHC helped begin the process of launching the girls' program by funding camps and clinics, as well as promotion and marketing efforts to grow participation. In recent months, RHC applied for program status through the Amateur Hockey Association of Illinois (AHAI) and recently received program approval to field 8U and 10U girls' teams. Currently, there are girls playing in the RHC, but they are either playing on boys' teams in Rockford or having to go to Chicago to play on an all-girls team. 

“We are extremely grateful to the IceHogs Community Fund for their continued support and partnership,” said Jordan Tuminaro, President of Rockford Hockey Club. “These funds are directly helping more kids in our community have access to hockey and have provided the seed money for our girls program to come to fruition.” 

The remaining three of the hockey-related grants from the ICF this year are renewals and include $10,000 to Rockford Park District Street Hockey (Junior StreetHogs) to support outreach to over 10,000 youth via community events and after school programs, $5,000 to Rockford Park District Buddy Hockey to support RPD’s floor hockey program for persons with disabilities, and $20,000 to YMCA of Rock River Valley. The YMCA grant will be allocated to programs at two Rockford YMCA locations. A portion of the grant will continue funding for the “NHL Street Hockey” program at the Good Shepherd YMCA location in west Rockford, a program that was launched last year on the strength of a $15,000 grant from the ICF. The goal for this year’s street hockey program at Good Shepherd is to start a multi-team street hockey league. The additional grant dollars will support water polo, underwater hockey, and movement/gymnastics programming at the UW Health Riverfront YMCA location in Rockford.  

A new area of focus for the ICF this year is education as three new grant recipients are organizations dedicated to improving educational endeavors in the Rockford region. The ICF is awarding a $20,000 grant to Rockford Promise that will fund scholarships for two qualified Rockford Public School District 205 high school students to attend Rock Valley College and will fully cover up to 60 credit hours for each student’s associate degree pathway.  

As part of regional efforts to improve childhood literacy, Alignment Rockford will receive a $10,000 grant to help fund production and distribution of prenatal “Ready to Read, Ready to Learn” kits and books to parents of newborn babies in Winnebago County. Each kit will include two developmentally appropriate books for caregiver-baby reading from day one, a fold-out guide built around the five "Every Child Ready to Read" practices—read, write, talk, sing, play—and a paperback resource booklet, "How to Build Your Child's Library in Winnebago County."  

The third new ICF grant tied to education is a $10,000 award to the Rock and Roll Institute to provide the equipment to build an in-house studio for the Institute’s new audio recording and production program. The Rock and Roll Institute, founded in 2004, provides unique one-week camps for aspiring musicians ages 12 to 20. Campers are placed in bands on a Monday and by week’s end are hitting the stage to perform. The new recording studio, which will be named “Hog Wild Studio” in honor of the grant from the IceHogs, will integrate recording instruction into year-round programming, and will include lessons in mixing and mastering, copyright and trademark, and self-promotion of musical activities. 

Two final education-based grants are both renewal grants, including $5,000 to the Rockford Area Arts Council to help provide no-cost access to students attending the Arts Council’s "Spark!" summer arts programs, and $2,100 to Rock Valley College (RVC) Foundation to fund the “Hammy Paves the Way” scholarship. This unique grant award provides scholarship dollars for one RVC student who auditions and serves as RVC’s mascot, Arvee, the Golden Eagle.   

This year’s additional grant recipients and award amounts include: 

• Oscar Mike Foundation ($10,000) to fully fund four disabled veterans to attend the Oscar Mike Illinois Adaptive Clinic 

• Rockford Phoenix Cheerleading ($10,000) to fund equipment and uniform costs and bring costs down for athletes participating in competitive cheerleading  

• VanVleet Family Foundation ($10,000) to fund travel and accommodations for up to eight high school teams from across the U.S. to compete in FVV Classic Thanksgiving basketball tournament, providing a unique experience for local teams to compete on national stage against teams from across the country 

This year’s $152,000 in grants brings the five-year total of ICF grants awarded to $547,000. The IceHogs Community Fund raises funds throughout the year in a variety of ways, including specialty jersey auctions as well as sales of 50/50 raffle tickets and other gameday activations.  

"We're very proud that our fans make these grants possible and that nearly every dollar raised goes right back into our community," said Dave Costello, IceHogs Director of Marketing and Community Relations. 

About the IceHogs Community Fund 

The IceHogs Community Fund is invested in making a positive social impact by supporting initiatives that will help make the Rockford region a better place to work, live, and play. Through partnerships with local organizations, the IceHogs Community Fund is dedicated to growing the game of hockey by working to broaden exposure and reduce barriers to the sport. The IceHogs Community Fund raises funds throughout the year in a variety of ways, including specialty jersey auctions as well as sales of 50/50 raffle tickets and other gameday activations.