by Jessica Charpentier
APG of East Central Minnesota/Crow River News
The annual Rockin’ Rogers festival honors a Citizen of the Year and in 2024, Dick Engstrom was chosen for the honor. The festival was to take place June 20 through 22, and Engstrom was to be recognized during the community night on June 20, before Hollow Point kicked off the musical entertainment that night.
He will also be featured in the Rockin’ Rogers parade on June 22, as grand marshal.
“There’s a lot of people that are involved in the Lions and the community that deserve accolades of this nature and I’m very honored. I’ve been with the Lions Club for 20 years, I’ve been in the community pretty much all my life other than a few years that I was out of town on business and then we moved back here,” Engstrom said. “It’s very much an honor to be recognized with the amount of work and efforts that we all put in.”
Engstrom is currently the gambling manager of the Rogers Lions Club, a position he’s held for around 10 years.
He grew up in Minnetonka and then lived in Maple Grove before spending 12 years in Phoenix and Chicago for business. Then, after growing tired of traveling, he and his family moved to Dayton in 1996. He and his wife along with two grandkids live close to the Dayton and Rogers border, and his children were a part of the Elk River Area School District.
“I was looking for someplace that was easy access to the freeways, to the major north-south routes. Also giving a small-town feeling but yet having all of the amenities that you could utilize, hence that’s why we kind of picked this northwest corner,” Engstrom said.
He helped a friend with a business in the Rogers area in the 1970s, so he’s long been well-versed in the community and has many friends in Rogers.
Before joining the Rogers Lions Club 20 years ago, Engstrom spent around six years helping out with the club.
He was the president of the club in 2009-10 and received the District Everyday Hero Award in 2019-20, the Melvin Jones Award in 2017-18 and the Oliver Kapsner Award in 2014 and 2021. He enjoys being a part of Rogers Lions Club and how the club can give back to the community whether that’s through monetary means or acts of kindness.
“You see it in their eyes and you see how people get excited about the Lions and serving them and giving them, if it’s not monetary, some other type of service to keep them part of the community, keep them active,” Engstrom said.
Engstrom is retired now so he spends a lot of time with his grandchildren or involved in the Lions Club. Before retiring, he worked in real estate development for McDonald’s Corporation for 35 years then he worked for Redbox for nine years.
He drove a school bus for a year and then worked for Redbox again before officially retiring. The Lions Club has events throughout the year including Breakfast with Santa, two fish fry events, a Veterans Breakfast on Veteran’s Day and more.
“Rockin’ Rogers is our biggest one, not only from a sponsor standpoint, but just participation. We try to keep it reasonable from a cost standpoint to come in and see the bands and enjoy,” Engstrom said.
If there’s a need in the community, people are asked to contact the Rogers Lions and then give a presentation to the board. Money is donated to the community and sometimes nearby communities such as Otsego, Dayton, Corcoran and Hanover.
To learn more about the Rogers Lions Club, go to rogersmnlions.org
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