Badger Rock Neighborhood Center CommUNITY Dinner is a unique opportunity for community members to come together to learn about resources available in the community, meet their neighbors in the diverse Badger Rock area on Madison’s south side and have a lot of fun. It was an interesting idea started a couple of years ago that just keeps picking up more and more momentum.
“I really think that this year we’ve definitely seen an increase in participation of the community at the CommUNITY Dinners. I think we finally figured out the magic. It’s becoming the place to be,” says Hedi Rudd, manager of First Impressions at Badger Rock Neighborhood Center on Madison’s south side. “We are definitely able to integrate the school community with the larger community while doing some very fun and very interesting things.”
Tonight, the Badger Rock Neighborhood Center, 501 E Badger Road, will celebrate with a Year-End Festival and CommUNITY Dinner from 4-7 p.m.
“Tonight’s CommUNITY Dinner is more about saying good-bye to our eighth-grade students and teachers and thanking the community for supporting the school,” Rudd tells Madison365. “This year’s school year has been very successful. The school climate surveys came out and our school is number two in terms of parents feeling good about the climate here at Badger Rock. So that is a huge accomplishment.”
The Badger Rock Neighborhood Center, located on Madison’s south side just off Rimrock Road, is a hub of community activity and is located in an inviting space that hosts community events, group gatherings and classes where neighbors of all ages are encouraged to get to know one another. It is part of The Center for Resilient Cities, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit committed to revitalizing urban communities. Badger Rock Middle School, a public charter school with an interdisciplinary, project-based learning program focused on environmental sustainability, is housed in the building and three-quarters of the students live in the nearby neighborhoods.
(Photo by Hedi Rudd)
Every month, Badger Rock hosts a free CommUNITY Dinner with a different flavor to it and different community partners.
“We’ve parted with the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Asian Studies for our Asian night. We’ve had Capoeira Angola partner with us, the [UW] Odyssey Program and Overture Center for the Arts have partnered with us,” Rudd says.
“Next year, we’re looking for even more partnerships including one with the African community where we highlight African culture,” Rudd adds.
(Photo by Hedi Rudd)
This Friday’s Year End CommUNITY Dinner will have a bouncy house and free barbecue cooked by none other than Peng Her, associate director at Center for Resilient Cities. “Kids will be in charge of the music and the best part is that there will be a dunk tank so you can dunk the principal and other members of the community like police officers, Rudd says.
Are we going to be able to dunk you?
“Haha …. No. That’s not going to happen,” Rudd laughs. “I don’t foresee that in my future.”
(Photo by Hedi Rudd)
Rudd is exciting that Badger Rock will be able to show off their fabulous gardens out back and will be making some salads with the lettuce and kale that the kids have harvested.
“Our garden is just huge now. The kids have put up trellises and have been busy planting different vegetables and herbs,” Rudd says. “It’s amazing.
“And we have four chickens now,” she adds. “It’s great to have fresh brown eggs.”
The Badger Rock Governance Council is the sponsor of tonight’s CommUNITY Dinner. “They’ve reached out to the local community and sought sponsorship for the event. Group Health Co-operative will be a major sponsor of the activities,” Rudd says.
Other sponsors have donated items that CommUNITY Dinner participants will have drawings for. “People can purchase a drawing ticket for some really great prizes,” Rudd says. “There’s a ton of fun stuff, I would definitely be there for that – movie tickets, gift baskets full of stuff.”
Badger Rock’s CommUNITY Dinner is a lot of people from the neighborhood and surrounding areas, but it’s also a community-wide celebration. Everybody is welcome to this free event.
“Anybody can come to these events from any part of town. We’ve gone from a pretty nice turn out to a capacity turnout. Somehow we always manage to feed everybody,” Rudd says. “It’s been huge to see how many people come out and it’s always a nice mix. Families from the school and people from the larger community. It’s very, very diverse. That’s what I love.
“Come on out tonight and have some fun. It’s a great way to end the school year,” she adds. “If people are out and about going to graduations and whatnot, stop on by for a bit and you can’t dunk somebody in the tank and have some great food with some great people.”
