Community Events

Veteran's Memorial Day Parade

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Memorial Weekend, Every Year
Downtown Rockford, IL

With the help of the Blackhawk Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois, the folded flags of the Veteran families that Fitzgerald Funeral Home & Crematory has served in the past are carried in the Annual Veteran's Memorial Day Parade in downtown Rockford.

2012 was our first year to participate in the Memorial Day weekend festivities.  We served over 130 Veteran families this past year.  It was with great pride that we honored them for their sacrifices and pay tribute to them in one of our community's most memorial events.

Several local scouts helped us carry 38 flags.  Carrying the banner was Craig and Judy Belk of Rockford – honoring their son, Blake Evans.

If you would like your flag to be included next year, please call our office to be added to our mailing list.  It would be an honor to carry your loved one's flag!

Walk to Remember

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First Sunday in October

This event is a memorial walk to remember children lost through miscarriage, still birth, infant and childhood death.  It is for all families who have lost children at any time either in the recent or distant past and for caregivers who are involved in the lives and support of these families.

A brief memorial service is held involving city aldermen, clergymen, local musicians and the mother of a child whose life ended too soon. A time of sharing and reflection will be provided, followed by gathering for the walk itself as each attendee will receive a balloon to carry along the path.  The walkers were led by a local bagpiper to the dedication site - about one mile from the YMCA Log Lodge that Rockford Park District allows us to use for the past 21 years.

At the dedication site there will be a prayer, song and balloon release as well as a re-dedication of the site itself.

Refreshments and fellowship follow at the Log Lodge as people return from the Walk.
This event is co-sponsored by Fitzgerald Funeral Home & Crematory and Swedish American Health System.  It provides a way to reach out to families in our community to have an opportunity to share in their grief and to come together in remembrance of their children destined for eternal joy.

Next year we will dedicate memorial bricks at the Walk to Remember dedication site on the Sinnissippi Bike Path.  If you would like to honor your child by purchasing a brick, please complete the attached form and mail to the address shown on the form. Memories in brick

Memorial Luminaria

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Saturday November 17, 2012
Fitzgerald Funeral Home - Mulford Chapel

The Memorial Luminaria is a special invitation to light a candle of love. This Luminaria program is offered as we enter the holiday season to our families who have lost a loved one within the past year.  We also make the entire Rockford community welcome through media publicity.

We provide a luminary bag with their loved one’s name printed on it and placed outside along our sidewalk. We encourage families to stop in and personalize their bags with photographs, poems, letters or any other significant decorations they may choose.

Local well known musicians enlighten our families and friends with their talent. Our staff offers their support and friendship throughout the evening.

At dusk, everyone gathers outside our chapel to light and reflect around their loved one’s luminary. A welcome is given by our staff along with some words of comfort and encouragement. Music is also shared at this time. Families are then given the opportunity to spend time as a family and reflect on their loved ones. We offer seasonal refreshments and supply a number of grief support literature. At the end of the evening each guest of ours is sent home with their bag and a special gift to remember the love and life shared.

This event brings our staff here at Fitzgerald Funeral Home & Crematory together to spend time with the families we have served and to comfort and support them through this part of their grief journey.

Angel Hope

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December 6th, Every Year
6:00 p.m.
Downtown River Front, Millennium Park

On December 6 each year at 6:00 p.m. Fitzgerald Funeral Home & Crematory staff members join with representatives of Rockford Memorial Development Foundation, Rockford Health Systems, Swedish American Hospital, OSF St. Anthony Medical Center, Haven Network and other community members for a Candlelight Vigil and Remembrance Ceremony. 

“The Christmas Box” is a book written by Richard Paul Evans in 1996 and is a beautiful tender story about the meaning of life and death and the power of a parents love.  This is represented by a beautiful three foot statue with outstretched wings.   Fitzgerald Funeral Home & Crematory joined with these groups and other individuals to bring “Angel Hope” to Rockford.  She has been placed on a large granite base donated by a local monument company and placed in a wooded setting that was donated by the Rockford Park District.  “Angel Hope” is a place of serenity for families that have experienced a death, especially the death of a child, to go meditate, pray, think and just be in a place where they are able to feel connected to their child.  Throughout the year family members or friends can be found visiting “Angel Hope”, often bringing flowers, notes or small gifts of remembrances to honor their loved ones. 

On December 6th at 6:00 p.m. every community in the world that is fortunate enough to have an Angel statue gathers to light candles and remember their children.  We send out invitations to the families that we have served and who have had children die and invite them to join us.  As each person arrives they are given a candle.  We have also invited them to bring a white flower to lie at the base of “Angel Hope”.  A Fitzgerald staff member is the Master of Ceremonies each year.  A parent, grandparent or family member share their story with us and then their candles are lit while they say the name of their child or children.  They are then invited to take their flower up to the statue and a special song is sung by an outstanding local musician.  Refreshments are served following the ceremony and everybody has an opportunity to visit with each other.