Days before Christmas, winds as strong as 100 mph battered the region. When the storms subsided, Rushmore Rotary members got to work cleaning up debris and branches left behind. In honor of its 40th anniversary in March, Rushmore Rotary Club set a goal to perform 40 acts of service, including four storm cleanup events, between Oct. 31, 2025, and March 12, 2026. The club not only achieved their goal but outdid themselves by completing 57.
Rushmore Rotary Club members load a truck with branches and debris on Jan. 3. Club members organized four different storm clean-up projects after the Dec. 18, 2025, windstorms battered Rapid City and the Black Hills.
“The beauty of Rotary is our motto is ‘Serving Above Self,’ and we truly live that. We think of opportunities to serve our community and throughout the world,” said Roger Heacock, Rushmore Rotary Club president.
Since Rushmore Rotary Club’s first meeting on March 12, 1986, club members have completed thousands of service projects and fundraisers. The club has grown from 25 members at its first meeting to 92 now. Opportunities to do good and to build friendships attract Heacock and others to the Rotary International organization and have kept Rushmore Rotary Club going strong for four decades.
Initiating 40 acts of kindness in honor of the club’s anniversary was “so much fun,” Heacock said.
The 40 acts of kindness goal demonstrates the club’s creativity, teamwork, and dedication to serving the Rapid City community.
“We had four different times we picked up trees and branches and put them in our trucks and hauled them away (after the December wind storm),” Heacock said.
The 40-turned-57 acts of kindness ran the gamut from assisting Feeding South Dakota with food distribution in Rapid City, to presenting Student of Distinction Awards to Rapid City Alternative Academy students, to Rotary Club members traveling to India earlier this year to vaccinate children against polio. Worldwide, Rotary has nearly eradicated polio by vaccinating three billion children.
Rushmore Rotary Club members gathered on March 24 for an anniversary celebration that highlighted their four decades of uplifting accomplishments.
“We love being together and serving our community,” Heacock said.
Among the club’s biggest contributions is its support of Children’s Home Society. That began in 1989 with a golf tournament, Heacock said.
“We have raised over $2.6 million for the Children’s Home Society, and that’s through an annual golf tournament we have and also a gala,” Heacock said. “We make quite an impact there. Rushmore Rotary has been involved in every building expansion that the Children’s Home Society has done in the Black Hills.”
Rushmore Rotary Club’s influence can be seen and experienced throughout the community. One of its ongoing projects was starting the Sponsor of the Day program at Storybook Island. This helps the park continue to provide free admission. Additionally, Sponsor of the Day helps fund the Carousel House for the park’s refurbished, rare vintage Allan Herschell carousel. Sponsor of the Day also funds the 100 Acre Woods expansion and the Storybook Symphony.
Club members regularly clean up highways, assist with Feeding South Dakota food distributions, serve lunch monthly at Cornerstone Rescue Mission, support students at Rapid City Alternative Academy, and provide in-person and financial disaster relief for events such as a recent apartment fire in Kyle.
In 2024, Rushmore Rotary Club partnered with Rapid City Rotary Club to give Rapid City a permanent symbol of peace and goodwill: the clubs installed a Peace Pole in Memorial Park.
Peace Poles are upright posts with the message “May Peace Prevail on Earth” written in a different language on each side. The Peace Pole in Memorial Park proclaims “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in English, Lakota, German and Japanese. Lakota was chosen to honor the Indigenous population, while German and Japanese were chosen in recognition of Rapid City’s Sister Cities: Apolda, Germany, and Nikko City, Japan.
Peace Poles are meant to remind everyone to think, speak and act in the spirit of peace and harmony.
“I’m grateful for the Rushmore Rotary Club and all the great work its members do in our community and the world,” Heacock said. “The club has been such a positive influence in my life, and I’ve met so many wonderful people that truly live our motto of ‘Service Above Self’.”