ROCKFORD - Megan Cavanagh, the actress who played Marla Hooch in the classic movie A League of Their Ownis the first celebrity who has committed to coming to Rockford for the city's celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Rockford Peaches.

The committee organizing the five-day celebration of the Peaches announced that

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Cavanagh is the first of what is hoped to be eight actresses from the movie coming to the anniversary kickoff event, "Diamonds, Denim and Stars" fundraiser on May 30 at the Coronado Theater.

The May 30th event is part of a nearly week-long celebration of the Peaches, who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League from 1943 to 1954, winning the league four times. Other events that week will take place at City Market, Friday Night Flix at Davis Park and at Beyer Stadium. Click here for the entire schedule.

The news conference at Illinois Bank & Trust highlighted the tremendous amount of momentum the celebration is gaining. Saturday there will be a Peach Pub Crawl at six locations in Roscoe, Loves Park and Rockford culminating in a kickoff party at Oscar's Pub & Grill, 5980 E. State St., Saturday night. There will be a coin bank campaign, Clodius Jewelers created a special pendant to auction off and more than 30 community partners have signed on to participate in some way.

The celebration though remains short in one aspect. It still needs seven organizations or businesses to step up and sponsor actresses. The celebration is the kickoff to a community-wide fundraising campaign to build a $7 million International Women's Baseball Center museum at the restored Beyer Stadium.

Beyer for decades was the center of the Rockford sports community. In the past 20 years, it has been mostly forgotten. This is Rockford's last, best chance to invest again in that part of town. If interested in sponsoring one of the actresses, click here to contact committee chair Sheryl Hall.

 

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