ROCKFORD, Mich.-- The Corner Bar in Rockford was destroyed in a fire almost three weeks ago. That includes their famous Wall of Fame. The Wall of Fame honors anyone who can eat 12 or more hot dogs in a four hour sitting. People on the wall won't have to redo the challenge.
Lucky for the more than 6,000 people on the Wall of Fame, a group of Rockford High School students digitized the list of names in 2016. When the Corner Bar is eventually rebuilt, the list of names will be as well.
"It was an undertaking," said Lisa Avram, teacher at Rockford High School. "It's huge."
Huge is an understatement. Lisa Avram had her class of 24 students at Rockford High School take on the task of making the Hall of Fame list digital.
"The manager at the Corner Bar, John Vanaman, contacted me in the spring of 2016 and asked if we had a group that would be able to help them put the wall into digital format," said Avram.
For the next four weeks, her students read the list and typed the names one by one.
"There's so many names out there and on the walls, that's what I most struck by," said Bailey Knittle, former Rockford High School student.
Knittle was part of the class that took on the job and says it was all worth it once they heard what happened to the Corner Bar.
"It was just so devastating that it would happen," said Knittle.
"Pardon the pun, but it's the cornerstone of our community," said Avram. "When you lose something like that it's so sad."
Then, they remembered that the Wall of Fame was not lost.
"When you think of the Corner Bar, you think of the Hot Dog Wall of Fame," said Knittle. "It was exciting to know that everything would be find and we could recreate it."
"It makes it all worthwhile that we did this," said Avram.
