Presented By

Join us on Thursday, March 27, 2025, for a BREAKFAST (8:00-10:30am) meeting at Heithaus Studios, for an OPENING DAY CELEBRATION featuring Randy & Grant Freking, “The Big Red Machine’s Last Hurrah“.

Start your Opening Day festivities off with Club 17 at Heithaus Studios (2600 Spring Grove Ave, 45214)! The cornhole tournament will start PROMPTLY at 8:00 a.m., and then we will hear from Randy & Grant Freking, beginning at 9:00 a.m. A breakfast buffet will be served with Mimosas and Bloody Marys! We hope to see you there!

  
Randy Freking is a 1982 graduate of The Ohio State University College of Law. After law school, Randy practiced law in Cincinnati, his hometown.

A lifelong Reds fan, Randy began to raise money for the Reds non-profit arm, the Reds Community Fund, by hosting an annual Opening Day Eve party. That work led to an association with the Community Fund, and he was invited to its Board in 2015. Randy is currently the Fund’s treasurer. The party has raised over a half million dollars!

As he wound down his law practice, Randy began writing books about the Reds, with each book’s proceeds going to the Community Fund. His first book was “Cincinnati’s 150-year Opening Day History: The Hoopla Started With A Parade,” published in 2019, on the team’s 150th anniversary. After that, he co-authored two books: “Titanic Struggle: The Best of Marty Brennaman” and, his latest, “The Big Red Machine’s Last Hurrah,” which is fiction based on the true story of the 1981 MLB season.

In fact, the newest book was inspired by Randy and his law school classmates. He will tell you that story during breakfast!

Randy retired from law at the end of 2020, and still lives in Cincinnati with his wife, Sue. They are blessed with four children, still living within 30 minutes of them, and nine grandchildren. Their family and local extended family will all be in attendance at the Opening Day game – 40 strong!

A journalist, writer and content creator since age 16, Grant Freking currently works in marketing communications for the University of Cincinnati. A graduate of The Ohio State University, he has written, edited and supervised a host of brands, magazines, newspapers, and websites, covering everything from high school gymnastics meets in Lafayette, Indiana, to signage and graphics conventions in Las Vegas, Nevada. A fan of food, sports and quoting movies and TV shows, Grant enjoys living in Cincinnati, where he is surrounded by family and friends.

Breakfast buffet will be catered by Hilver’s Catering!

RSVPs are required to attend, whether you are eating or not, so if you would like to attend, please click HERE by 5:00 p.m., Friday, March 21, 2025, or contact [email protected]. If you are not a current member of the Rotary Club of Cincinnati, please note lunches are $30, and payment will be collected at the door via cash, check, or credit card.  Please reach out to [email protected] with any questions.