The Rough Rider Dinner is an annual event sponsored by The Ripon Society.  At the dinner, The Ripon Society traditionally honors individuals who have pushed for innovative policy solutions on a range of issues with Rough Riders Awards as well as individuals for distinguished careers with Lifetime Achievement Awards.

         

<Congressman Tom Petri, Mr. Lee Huebner
   and Mr. John Price – Founders of the Ripon
   Society – receive award

 

 

             Past Rough Rider Award winners have included Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici, New York Congressman Tom Reynolds, Michigan Congressman Fred Upton, Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor, New York Congresswoman Sue Kelley, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, Delaware Congressman Michael Castle, Michigan Congressman Vernon Ehlers, North Carolina Senator Richard Burr, and Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson.

            Past Lifetime Achievement Awardees includes Congressman Sherwood Boehlert of New York, Congressman Jim Kolbe of Arizona, Congressman Michael Oxley of Ohio, and Congressman Bill Thomas of California.

          The honorees are chosen based on a quote from President Theodore Roosevelt:

           “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles....The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, … but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his places shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

          The 2007 Rough Rider Dinner was held June 19^th in Washington, DC in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress’ Jefferson Building.  The Ripon Society was proud to present Rough Rider Awards to this year’s honorees: Senator Trent Lott (R-MS), Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN), U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY).  Teddy Roosevelt Lifetime Achievement Awards were also presented to Senator John Warner (R-VA) and former Congresswoman Nancy Johnson (R-CT).