Graduate Higher Education Fund Archives

Virtual Duck Race Benefits Eagle Rock’s Graduate Higher Ed Fund

We’re super excited to finally announce the pandemic version of the Estes Park Duck Race. This year’s highly anticipated Estes Park Rotary Duck Race is still on, featuring cash and high-end prizes, the excitement of a competitive race, and the opportunity to help Eagle Rock School graduates with the cost of higher education.

However, because of the ongoing health pandemic that is curtailing such in-person crowd-pleasing events around the globe, the 2020 duck race won’t exactly be all that it’s previously been quacked up to be. This year’s race will be delivered virtually, online. So when we say, “You don’t have to be present to win,” this time around we really mean you don’t have to be present to win. In fact, we would prefer you stay at home.

On a serious note, the Estes Park Rotary Duck Race is the biggest fundraiser of the year that we’re asked to participate in, and we’re grateful for the Estes Park Rotary Club’s decision to hold the 2020 race — broadcasting the event live and immediately announcing the winners to an audience of duck adopters watching online from the comfort of their homes.

Here’s are how things are going to go down the river this time around:

It’s going to be a virtual Duck Race, run on Saturday, Sept. 19. However, instead of dropping rubber duckies in the river and pulling them out at the finish line, the event’s organizers are going to put all the duck’s bib numbers in a rotating barrel and pull them out one by one.

Each duck’s bib number will be entered into the computer, as has been done for many years, winners will be determined by a Continue reading…

#GivingTuesday Donations Offer a Boost and Benefit for Eagle Rock Graduates

Now in its eighth year, “Giving Tuesday” is the highly successful movement to promote an international day of charitable giving during the holidays. Here at Eagle Rock, it offers the possibility of being a boon for our school’s graduates, who leave our fold fully engaged in their own education and in search of successful and fulfilling futures which often involve further education and/or technical training.

Originally called “Cyber Giving Monday,” this nonprofit-focused effort urges patrons and donors alike to use the Internet to make charitable contributions to worthy organizations as a different approach to taking advantage of online holiday gift purchases. The year after it launched in 2011, the movement was renamed “Giving Tuesday,” and moved a day later to avoid competition with Cyber Monday.

We’re unabashedly and gratefully grabbing onto this altruistic gift-giving opportunity by encouraging members of the Eagle Rock Community to contribute on this day. When giving to us, the proceeds from such generous gifts go directly into support for our graduating students through the Eagle Rock Graduate Higher Education Fund.

Last week, Jeff Liddle, our Head of School, released a letter to supporters, urging them to continue this new tradition of giving during the holidays, and especially on Giving Tuesday. Here’s some of what Jeff expressed: Continue reading…

Annual Estes Park Duck Race on May 4 Benefits our Graduate Education Fund

Here’s an interesting fact about the upcoming Estes Park Duck Race — a benefit event that helps to raise funds for among other things, our Graduate Higher Education Fund. What used to be called the Rotary of Estes Park Duck Race has been elevated in status to a genuine festival.

Now known as the Estes Park Rotary Duck Race Festival, the daylong event maintains its tradition — dating back 30 years — in which participants launch thousands of little yellow duckies downstream in hopes of winning from among hundreds of prizes. The grand prize is $5,000 in cash, with the following three winners picking up destination vacations at national parks. In addition, hundreds of prizes from Estes Park merchants and others will be handed out at the finish line.

However, the real winners of this duck float and fest are the benefiting organizations and charities whose supporters “adopt out” the rubber racing ducks, with 95 percent of each duck’s adoption fee going directly to locally-based organizations, including Eagle Rock. In the past three decades, more than $2.4 million has been Continue reading…

It’s #GivingTuesday and Eagle Rock is the Perfect Recipient for Your Gift

The leftovers have been warmed up — and warmed up again — and there’s finally room in the refrigerator for regular groceries. Nearly everybody’s back at school or work following the Thanksgiving holidays. Black Friday is a memory, Cyber Monday wrapped up a few hours ago and we’re now well into Giving Tuesday.

What is Giving Tuesday? Often touted as #GivingTuesday for those aficionados of hashtags, this 24-hour period — celebrated the Tuesday after Thanksgiving — is designated as an international day of charitable giving at exactly the time many families and corporations are focusing on their end-of-year donations. Donors often turn to their own communities for such offerings, and for those supporters, friends and alumni of Eagle Rock School & Professional Development Center, we can think of no group that would be more grateful than our own Graduate Higher Education Fund recipients.

Back in the 1997 when our school was still in its infancy, we realized that while our new graduates had accomplished great feats in their personal growth, maturity and education, they were often faced with insurmountable financial needs — especially when it came to Continue reading…

Buying a Flock of Rubber Ducks Supports Eagle Rock School Scholarships

Just as the swallows return to Mission San Juan Capistrano each year, the rubber duckies return to Estes Park — this year on Saturday, May 5 — continuing a three-decade tradition that has seen more than $2.4 million returned to our mountainside community as a result of Duck Race Festival purchases and disbursements to local organizations like Eagle Rock.

Dozens of area charities and organizations — including the Graduate Higher Education Fund here at Eagle Rock School — are recipients of nearly 100 percent of the proceeds from the Estes Park Rotary Duck Race Festival, which starts at Nicky’s Resort alongside the Fall River in downtown Estes Park, Colo.

The excitement mounts as race participants line the river to see thousands of adopted rubber duckies released into the waterway, floating downstream to the finish line on the Big Thompson River near Rockwell Street. Each duck is a potential winner to its adopted owner, with hundreds of prizes available to Continue reading…

Higher Ed Fund Offers Eagle Rock Grads a Leg Up on Their Future

Editor’s Note: Giving Tuesday is a global day of charity that follows Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Below, Eagle Rock Head of School Jeff Liddle presents a case for friends of Eagle Rock School to participate in today’s charitable event by focusing their end-of-year giving to our graduates — young people who many thought would never graduate from high school. Donations of any size are gratefully welcomed and 100 percent of these gifts go to support the higher education of our graduates. Gifts are tax-deductible and donors receive a letter that can be used for tax purposes.

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Few things bring me more joy than handing an Eagle Rock School diploma to a graduate. Sharing our Human Performance Center with mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, cousins and grandparents, aunts, uncles and sponsors is a great honor. We celebrate and hold space for renewed hope. Hope of a future once seemingly unattainable.

Three times a year at graduation we pause. We cry. We laugh. We celebrate. Three times a year Eagle Rock grads get to say, “Yes, I did it!” This, despite all the odds. Despite the doubters. Despite tremendous obstacles. All Who Dare is more than a cliché. Our graduates are living, breathing examples of it. They dare.

Graduates walk across the Human Performance Center stage with hope, plans, and a solid high school experience that launches them into the future. Unfortunately, the daunting reality is this: That next step — the pursuit of higher education — is often financially out of reach.

That’s why I’m reaching out today, on Giving Tuesday. As the cost of higher education continues to rise, these graduates’ financial needs have never been greater. At Eagle Rock, we send forth students who have the desire and are prepared to Continue reading…

Graduate Higher Ed Funding Grows With Each Rubber Duck Purchase

Whoo-hoo — it’s Duck Race season! We’re very blessed to have such an incredible base of support in the extended Eagle Rock community and we’re super excited to kick off this year’s race.

And when it comes to fundraisers for our school’s Graduate Higher Education Fund, what could be more festive than a Rubber Duck race? Why, you can’t even say rubber ducky without smiling. So, when you’re offered the opportunity to make a contribution to our Graduate Higher Education Fund — and potentially win valuable prizes — it becomes an easy decision.

Estes Park Duck Race Mascot Quilten T. Canvasback visits with Eagle Rock students and staff. — Estes Park Duck Race mascot, Quilten T. Canvasback, visits with Eagle Rock students and staff in advance of the 2017 Estes Park Duck Race.

Which probably goes a long way in explaining why the Estes Park Duck Race is such a huge success. Held each year on the first Saturday in May, this event has raised more than $2 million for local charities and organizations since the first event back in 1989. And among the big beneficiaries of the festivities has been Eagle Rock School’s Graduate Higher Education Fund.

The 2017 edition of the Duck Race & Festival will be held on Saturday, May 6, and here’s how it works and why you may want to considering adopting a duck or two or three or more: Continue reading…

It’s Duck Race Time Again!

It’s that time of year again: Adopt a duck, send a graduate to college!

Read on for all the details:

The 2016 Duck Race & Festival benefiting the Eagle Rock School’s Graduate Higher Education Fund is scheduled for Saturday, May 7, in Estes Park, and is the perfect platform for parents, supporters and other members of the Eagle Rock community to raise funds for one of our most important projects on campus.

This — the 28th annual duck race — continues a tradition started in 1989 that has, so far, returned more than $2 million to local charities and groups.

How much money, you ask? A whopping $19 out of every $20 (or $21 if purchased online) spent to adopt a rubber ducky for the race goes directly to the Eagle Rock Graduate Higher Education Fund.

If you do the math, that’s 95 percent of the proceeds from each duck adoption. Of course it helps that Rotary Club volunteers — like Eagle Rock’s own head of school, Jeff Liddle — run the Duck Race, thus keeping fundraising overheard low. That means that if you specify Eagle Rock School as the recipient, we get the $19 donation, which goes directly into our Graduate Fund, which supports past and future Eagle Rock graduates in their pursuit of higher education.

This program is unique to Eagle Rock, with each and every graduate eligible for up to Continue reading…

Eagle Rock Theatre Students Dare to Present ‘Spring Awakening’

Spring-Awakening Far be it for Eagle Rock School’s Music and Performance Department to turn and walk away from the edgier side of musical theater. In fact, if you take a look at past performances, the department has produced and presented such controversial programs as Urinetown and Rent.

So it’s no surprise at all that Meghan Tokunaga-Scanlon — our Music & Performance Instructional Specialist — has chosen to push the boundaries even further this year, offering up a presentation of Spring Awakening.

The production will be staged at the Rialto Theatre in Loveland (Colo.) beginning at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 1, with two more showings in the days that follow — Thursday, April 2 at 7 p.m., and Friday, April 3, also at 7 p.m. The cost of admission is at the discretion of the audience member, but keep in mind that proceeds benefit the Eagle Rock Graduate Fund — a cause that’s near and dear to all Eagle Rock students. The theater is located at 228 East 4th Street in Loveland.

And while this performance is definitely not suitable for children, there won’t be any body exposure and the overt sexuality is somewhat toned down. However, the show still contains plenty of adult content.

Here at Eagle Rock, we’re fortunate to have such a supportive administration. Spring Awakening tackles some really weighty issues that are very relatable to a lot of our students.

springawakening4

With book and lyrics by Steven Sater and music by Duncan Sheik, Spring Awakening is by turns irreverent, poignant, boisterous and thoughtful. The authors made the unlikely decision to Continue reading…

It’s Never Too Early To Get Your Rubber Ducks In A Row

2015EstesParkDuckRaceButton When was the last time you actually heard anyone say they just hate a well-organized duck race? Never, that’s when. And if you add a good cause to this equation, you’re pretty much guaranteed to have a successful event.

Here at Eagle Rock, we’re among the go-to experts when it comes to conducting rubber ducky derbies, and with 26 years of such faux fowl festivities on its fund-raising resume, the Rotary Club of Estes Park handles this event with great authority.

As is always the case, some of the proceeds from this — the 27^th annual Estes Park Duck Race — benefit Eagle Rock’s Graduate Higher Education Fund, among other local charities. Fact is, since that first duck race back in 1989, more than $2 million has been raised for local charities and organizations.

This year’s race gets underway at or around 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 2, and we hesitate to give an exact time because everyone knows how difficult it is to herd rubber ducks. The actual competition begins at Nikki’s Steakhouse On The River on the west side of downtown Estes Park (exact location: 1350 Fall River Road), and travels down the Fall River to the downtown area behind Inkwell & Brew.

That’s where visitors and participates can watch as thousands of rubber ducks float across the finish line on the Big Thompson River. When you hear people talk about the perfect photo opportunity, this is what they’re talking about.

One of the highlights of this event is the opportunity for participants to Continue reading…