2020 Excelsior finalist: Rockford Promise clears path to college
Organization: Rockford Promise
Address: 1643 N. Alpine Road, Suite 104, No. 102, Rockford. (It’s a post office box at the Postal Shoppe at Edgebrook.)
Phone: 815-627-0491
Total staff: 2.5, an executive director, scholar and mentor coordinator, and part-time administrative assistant.
Annual budget: $370,959; $312,000 reserved for scholarships, $204,000 paid out. In 2020, Rockford Promise awarded scholarship funds to five students to attend Rockford University and 24 students to attend Rock Valley College.
Mission: Rockford Promise is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) location-based scholarship program that offers full-tuition scholarships to deserving graduates of Rockford Public Schools. Modeled after Promise programs around the nation, the goal is to increase educational attainment in our community while providing a powerful economic incentive for residents and businesses to locate in the Rockford region.
ROCKFORD After a 40-year news career spanning five states, Rockford Register Star Executive Editor Mark Baldwin will retire at the end of the month.
The Illinois native known throughout the community for his steadfast and compassionate leadership and commitment to solutions-based journalism made the announcement Tuesday.
The 2017 GateHouse Media Editor of the Year said the thing he will miss the most is the people.
“As things have gotten very challenging over the last 10 years, I always stayed with it because of the people,” Baldwin said. “News people have three things that I can’t think too many other workplaces would cherish as much they’re wicked smart, they’re funny and they’re passionate. They care deeply about the place where they are and the people and places they cover.”
The Rockford Register Star’s Excalibur Award is given to an individual for community service and excellence and for making a difference in the Rock River Valley. The Excelsior Award goes to an organization for doing the same. Mustafa Abdall is an Excalibur finalist.
Name: Mustafa Abdall
Occupation: Lincoln Middle School teacher
About the nominee: Mustafa Abdall teaches English as a second language and has been instrumental in helping hundreds of immigrants acclimate to life in Rockford. Earlier this year he was recognized as one of the Rockford Register Star s 2020 People to Watch.
Abdall also is founder of Winnebago Emerging Small Business Services, an organization that focuses on providing support to bilingual and multicultural entrepreneurs. In October, he and his business partner, Moe Allen, took ownership of Ronit s Kitchen, an Indoor City Market restaurant at 116 N. Madison St. and renamed it Guzel, which means beautiful in Turkish.
Intriguing letter apparently evidence against Alabama man in 1987 Illinois homicide
Updated Dec 11, 2020;
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ROCKFORD, Ill. A letter kept in a safe deposit box apparently is part of the evidence against an Alabama man who is charged with killing a 19-year-old woman in Illinois in 1987, an attorney said.
Defense lawyer Christopher DeRango made the disclosure Wednesday, the same day that Jesse Smith pleaded not guilty in the death of Tammy Tracey of Rockford, who disappeared after going to a park to wax her car.
Smith, 64, of Tuscumbia, Alabama, was arrested in Georgia on Nov. 19. He’s a former Illinois resident.
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