Reaching Out to Community and Kids (ROCK) is a non-profit organization located in Dove Creek, Colorado. We serve all of Dolores County and Egnar by reaching out to provide food relief, youth and family enrichment, and community events that create a place that residents are proud to call home.
Executive Director, Carol Marie Howell founded ROCK in February 2013 and the organization has grown every single year. It began with a dream to build a youth center - a lofty goal in 2013 when Carol Marie didn't even have a board of directors, much less the skills on how to secure funding.
Yet, through creativity, resourcefulness, and community support, Carol Marie began putting one foot in front of the other. She began holding the "first annual" of many holidays including the Easter Egg Dash, The Spooktacular Halloween Carnival, and ROCK the Holidays.
Now all of these events have become anticipated, supported, and a hallmark for what ROCK stands for.
Almost 8 years later, ROCK now has an established Youth Enrichment Program (YES ROCKs!) that includes weekend hangout times for community youth. YES ROCKs! provides skill classes in the summer, youth and adult art classes, and summer lunches. The outreach building, where ROCK is located, also has a newly poured basketball court, a place to play cornhole, and a fun place to hangout and play games inside.
Other programs that ROCK has built up over the years include:
- Coordinating efforts with Care and Share and Dolores County Schools to provide snack for students through 8th grade
- The Kid Shine program that hands out hygiene items to any child who needs them all the way through high school
- School supply distributions at the beginning of each school year for all Dolores County students through 8th grade
- Summer drive-through food distributions
- Two holiday turkey distributions in November and December
- Angel Tree Program: providing presents for children in need
- Golden Angel Program: making and delivering presents and a hot meal to our isolated seniors at Christmas time
- Summer movie nights open and free to all of the community
ROCK continues to build and grow programs that reach every member of our community, with a particular emphasis on our area youth.
It also should be noted that ROCK has been a major source for food relief for our community during COVID-19. As of November 1, 2020, ROCK has shopped, packed, and distributed over 1600 boxes of food to those who have been hit the hardest in our community.