Rockton’s Settlers Park hosted the fourth annual Jack’s Joy Ride on Saturday, Oct. 3, a family event built around games, music and a scavenger hunt linking the park to local businesses. The afternoon gathering supported the Jack Baumann Memorial Foundation, which the Baumann family created after Jack’s death to carry forward his impact. The foundation describes its work as helping school-aged children in the Midwest with education and supporting families healing after the loss of a child.
The foundation’s event page set the ride for 2 to 6 p.m. at Settlers Park, 120 Hawick Street. It invited families to travel around the community to “Jack Spots,” collect stamps in passports and return to the park for live music, raffle baskets, carnival games and food trucks. Participating locations could offer special Jack-themed items for purchase. Those details made the day more than a single attraction: the plan connected local stops with a shared gathering place.
A report from Rockford television station WTVO, published after the event, confirmed that the afternoon took place and described a stamp hunt, prizes, games, live music, food trucks and a raffle. The report also identified Jack’s Joy Ride as the foundation’s fourth annual event. The foundation page establishes what organizers invited people to do; WTVO’s recap gives a post-event account of the activities.
The foundation’s purpose reaches beyond the event calendar. Its website says it provides financial support for educational purposes and services for school-aged children in the Midwest, as well as support for Midwestern families healing after losing a child. WTVO reported that the foundation’s work includes pre-K scholarships, grants for early-childhood educators and scholarships for future teachers. Those programs give the family gathering a concrete community purpose, while the foundation’s own description makes clear that its work also includes care for families facing grief.
In comments to WTVO, Jack’s father, Brandon Baumann, described how the Stateline community supported the family after Jack died. He said the family wanted to give back and continue the joy they associated with Jack. The foundation’s event and its ongoing programs connect that intention to educational support for children and support for families healing after a child’s loss.
Baumann told WTVO that at least a dozen businesses and several dozen volunteers participated, and that planning took months. The report does not name every volunteer or business, but it documents a substantial local effort behind the afternoon. The foundation’s event page had laid out the planned mix of Jack Spots, passport stamps, music, raffle baskets, carnival games and food trucks; WTVO’s recap confirmed activities including the stamp hunt, games, music and food trucks took place.
The public reports do not publish an attendance figure or the amount raised. That leaves important measures of the event’s financial effect unknown: readers cannot tell from these accounts how much was collected or how many scholarships or families may eventually benefit. Keeping that boundary clear makes it possible to describe what the event did establish—a fourth annual gathering, an organized volunteer effort and a foundation whose stated work includes education and grief support—without turning unreported outcomes into promises.
The foundation’s two areas of work answer different needs. Education grants and scholarships are aimed at helping children, teachers and future educators; support for families after a child’s death recognizes a different and deeply personal need. Jack’s Joy Ride brings these strands into one public event, but a festive afternoon is not a substitute for the longer-term programs the foundation describes. The gathering is one visible part of that continuing work.
For Rockton, Jack’s Joy Ride returned for a fourth year with activities centered at Settlers Park and stops across the community. WTVO reported that businesses and volunteers helped make the afternoon happen, while Brandon Baumann connected the foundation’s purpose to the support his family received. The accounts do not say how much the ride raised or how many people attended. They do show an event built around a family’s wish to honor Jack by directing support toward children and families facing loss.
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