ROCHELLE – Local non-profit organization We Care Rochelle partnered with Alfano’s Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant in Rochelle to host its first ever “Pack the Place” fundraiser on Nov. 12 to earn money for four local organizations. 

“We Care Rochelle is an organization built on the idea that in order to move forward, we have to give back. Our main goal is to strengthen four of Rochelle’s community pillars by making a donation on behalf of our clients to these groups with every business transaction conducted,” according to the website.

The group’s first big event of the year was the Downtown Block Party held in June. The Pack the Place event was a follow-up event to the block party that will hopefully become an annual event in the community. 

“When we first started planning for the block party and began reaching out to businesses seeing if anyone would be willing to participate or donate, Pete Alfano had the great idea to do a follow-up event called Pack the Place,” explained Ryan Greifenkamp, co-founder of We Care Rochelle.

We Care Rochelle intends to host to main fundraisers each year, which are the block party and the pack the place event. 

Proceeds from those who dined-in at Alfanos for the Pack the Place fundraiser, were donated to four different beneficiaries of We Care Rochelle. Those organizations include the Rochelle Police Department, the Rochelle Fire Department, the Hub City Senior Center and the Rochelle Rescue Mission. 

The check in the amount of $500 will be equally split between the organizations. 

“This check will actually get cut evenly four ways and dispersed within the next 24 hours,” explained Greifenkamp.

The beneficiaries for We Care Rochelle will change next year, but the pillars of the community that the new ones serve will be the same. For example, instead of having the Hub City Senior Center, a different senior center or living facility could be chosen. 

The day the event was held, the area experienced record breaking cold temperatures, so as a way to help with the turnout, the event was opened up for carry-out and delivery instead of dine-in only. While they received many calls from people saying that they would have loved to make it out but couldn’t because of the cold weather, We Care Rochelle and Alfano’s Pizza would like to thank the community for their participation. 

“We just want the community to know that we are very thankful for their participation and we want them to know that we are going to continue to support and pour back into the community and different entities within it,” said Greifenkamp.

We Care Rochelle is always looking for new businesses and individuals to partner with and they can do so by contacting the organization through the We Care Rochelle Facebook page, or through their website at wecarerochelle.org.