The Rockne Historical Association’s annual fundraiser on Feb. 14 attracted about 240 people, one of the largest crowds in the event’s history. The silent auction tables were loaded with treasures and bidders swarming around them and the live auction was filled with interesting wares.

One unusual item, which brought over $200 in the auction, was a Rockne Sacred Heart High School yearbook from 1955. The donor found it at the Goodwill in Bastrop and when auctioneer Mike Hilbig started calling out the locals’ names who were pictured in the book, several hands went up to bid on it. The winning bidder was Marian Nelson, who plans to donate the yearbook to the Rockne Museum.

All in all, the event raised more than $10,000, including the auctions, drawing, dues, the meal and donations. Before the live auction got underway, a general meeting was held and Gerri Martinez, new president of RHA, gave a speech honoring the past president, Marian Nelson.

Nelson has done so much for RHA over the years and to emphasize this, Martinez began her speech by pulling out a huge eight-foot roll of paper to read off all of her many contributions, such as donating the property to create Hilbig Park, creating the newsletter, obtaining grants to fund restorations and starting the annual fundraiser.

I recently caught up with Gerri Martinez to ask her about RHA and its vision and future plans:

How long have you been involved in RHA?

I have been vice-president since 2004. I have been on the board as a director since 1999.(Marian was president from 1990-1999, then reelected from 2004-2009).

What kind of goals or vision do you have for RHA?

There are three main goals at this time:

1) To get our people more involved with their heritage and learn more about our ancestors who settled here and created a foundation for the community which we now have. To do this we currently are planning on featuring a family of each of our ancestors on a quarterly basis to get the interest of all our families.

2) To get more young people, like yourself, involved with the work of the RHA.  This will insure that our heritage and history will continue to be valued by future generations.

3) To get other people from outside the community to come and learn about our history.

We’re planning currently to get the local schools to have day trips for their students to our museum. We’re also looking for new ideas on how to get our museum in publications and computer Web sites to peak the interest of outside visitors.

My vision is very simple: That years from now the seeds that we have planted in our community’s younger members’ minds will help them keep the memories and history of our ancestors alive.

Why should people come to visit the museum/ park? (even if they’re not from the area?)

Texas is a diversified area of a number of natives and immigrants and we all need to discover and learn each other’s cultures in our state.

How do you feel about taking on the position of president?

It’s a wonderful feeling that the RHA Board of Directors and the people involved with the association have placed their trust in me to help with the continuous growth in the knowledge of our ancestors and our community.

Weekend Events

The Rockne-String Prairie Knights of Columbus Council is having a fish fry this Friday, Feb. 26 in the Old Parish Hall of Sacred Heart Church in Rockne. Serving will be from 5-8 p.m.

The fish fry is all-you-can-eat (not including take-out plates). Adult plates are $8 and children’s plates are $5. All take-out plates are $7.

There will be a benefit for Hayden and Marie Harberer, who lost their house in a fire, at Watterson Hall on Sunday, Feb. 28. Barbecue plates will be sold starting at 11 a.m. and a live auction will start at 2 p.m.

Anyone who has auction items to donate may bring them to Watterson Hall beginning at 10 a.m.