Darol Rodrock Celebrates 70th Birthday Today With Fundraising Gala For Foster Children Foundation

By: Brittany Bevis

Traditionally, it’s more common to receive presents on your birthday rather than to give gifts to others. However, Darol Rodrock is turning this birthday tradition on its head by hosting a fundraising gala this evening to unveil his new Darol Rodrock Foundation to the local community.

In honor of Rodrock’s 70th birthday, he will be hosting a grand gala including dinner, an auction, and live entertainment at the Overland Park Convention Center in Kansas beginning at 6:30 p.m. Funds from the event will go towards Rodrock’s new foundation which seeks to raise awareness about children living in foster care and encourage members of the community to invest in the future of the next generation. This cause is very near and dear to Rodrock’s heart because he was a foster child.

In our 2011 Equine Chronicle article entitled, “Darol Rodrock- Ride To Riches,” Rodrock spoke candidly about the experience of being taken out of his home, by the state, and placed in an orphanage.

“My mother couldn’t care for us, my brother and sisters, so from the ages of seven to eleven, I was in the orphanage,” he says. “The orphanage was run by the Lutheran church. I must have been around eight or nine when, one day, the minister told me that Jesus loved me, no matter what. It was the first time I ever felt that someone really loved me. That knowledge gave me an inner strength and comfort that helped me through some tough times. It has stayed with me and guides me to this day.”

We spoke with Rodrock just a few moments ago as he makes last-minute preparations for the big bash.

“I’ve always wanted to do this,” he says. “Tonight, we have 2,200 people coming to my party. It was $100 a ticket and all of the money raised will go to the Foundation. I have a committee for the Foundation, and every person on the board was either a foster child, adopted, or has adopted children. Every one of them. That’s what I wanted.”

As stated on his website, the Foundation’s mission is “to help children in foster care realize the good in them and help them overcome the loneliness and uncertainty they may feel. To enrich their lives and find a way to help them fulfill the destiny that God has planned for them. ‘I understand this better than anyone, because I lived this life until I found a loving family to guide and believe in me.’– Darol Rodrock”

Giving a nod to his involvement in the horse industry, Rodrock has selected special centerpieces that will be placed on each dinner table this evening.

“As the centerpiece of the tables, we have cowboy boots,” he says. “We are asking the people at the table to buy those boots for a foster child. Tomorrow, a nine or ten-year-old foster child will be able to put those boots on. It kind of fits my casual theme. There are 215 tables, so if we could raise $500 a table that would be an additional $100,000!”

Plenty of Rodrock’s friends in the horse industry will be in attendance to dine, dance, and donate to the cause. During the festivities, partygoers will enjoy the sounds of The Blue Sky Riders, Kenny Loggins, Georgia Middleman, and Gary Burr. When it comes time to pony up some cash, attendees will be able to bid on incredible items such as tickets to the 2014 Masters Golf Tournament, 2014 Super Bowl tickets, a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and a deep-sea fishing expedition with Rodrock in Marco Island, FL.

While tonight is definitely a birthday celebration, and it is certainly a Foundation fundraiser, the evening will also serve as a way to honor Rodrock’s late foster parents, Lavone and Ray Robinson.

“They were Kansas dirt farmers,” he says. “They needed teachers real bad in the Depression, so my foster mother taught school for two years. My father had a ninth grade education, and he became a farmer. They taught me about unconditional love. They changed my life.”

“Ray was a hummer. He chuckled and he hummed. He was happy, not an educated man, but happy. We were in the pickup truck one day, and he started humming. I asked him, ‘what are you so happy about?’ He said, ‘I’m happy because I have you in my life, Darol.’ I’ve never forgotten that. It wasn’t because I made straight A’s or because I made my bed or because I was a good boy. It was just because I was in his life.”

We would like to send a very Happy Birthday to Darol Rodrock as he celebrates his 70th birthday in spectacular style! From your friends at The Equine Chronicle.

 

For more information about the Darol Rodrock Foundation click here.

Click here to view Rodrock’s YouTube video entitled, “I Can, I Will,” to learn more about his past as a foster child.

Click here to visit the website for Rodrock Quarter Horses, the home of sires like Certain Potential, Only In The Moonlite, Huntin For Chocolate, and A Scenic impulse.