Introducing: The Mount Pulaski Hilltop Club - aims at giving back to the community

[February 13, 2018] 

MOUNT PULASKI

Introducing: The Mount Pulaski Hilltop Club - a newly formed organization in Mount Pulaski aimed at giving back to the community

When the local Mount Pulaski Jaycees disbanded last year, it didn’t take long for a new group to form with a new name, some familiar faces and several fresh ideas. The Mount Pulaski Hilltop Club was born and with it came the creation of both a men’s side and a women’s side.

Doug Smock, Andy Meister, Justin Jones, Brian Beecraft and Steve Fulscher make up the Executive Board of the Hilltop Club ~ Men

Sam Brown, Julie Bobell, Katie Alsup, Sheena Vinyard and Danielle Meister make up the Executive Board of the Hilltop Club ~ Women
 

The club will also join forces to host events throughout the year with the same mission in mind: To help the community through raising funds for charitable purposes. In addition, the club will provide a place of recreation and relaxation for members only.

Katie Alsup, President of the Women of the Hilltop Club, says, “We just want to give back the support that the community needs. We are such a small community that there’s no reason that we can’t help each other. Mount Pulaski was hit with three hard tragedies last year and it would be nice as a group to be able to give back and give families support that need it. I mean, I know from experience that we’ve needed support and we’ve gotten that support. It made a tremendous affect on us and so just to pay it forward and do it graciously and have fun while doing it is going to make it all worth it.”

“There is going to be a men’s and women’s side and different forms of fundraising,” Alsup went on to explain. “The events are going to be both big and small. The men just had a gun raffle and it was successful. They sold 300 tickets in less than a month and they did a really good job at it. Hopefully we will have another couple of those throughout the year just as small fundraisers. We are also looking for a clubhouse to purchase so we can have our men’s and women’s meetings and have our small events there. It is going to be membership only. There is a $100 fee to join and there will be an annual membership fee of $40,” said Alsup.

Together the group will do large events open to the public, like the first one coming up this Saturday, February 17, 2018.

The organization’s first event will take place at the American Legion Hall in Mount Pulaski. It’s called “Lucky in Love - Casino Night” and will feature an Italian dinner - Lasagna and Chicken Parmesan and all the Italian fixings by Mike Richner’s Hilltop Catering - and draft beer and casino games such as blackjack, poker, craps, war and bingo. Each couple will receive $150 worth in poker chips. Additional chip packages can be purchased. Pooling of chips is prohibited. Prizes will be awarded to the top three chip leaders. The poker chips have no nominal value and are for entertainment purposes only. Doors open to the event at 5:00 p.m. with dinner being served at 6:00 p.m. The cost is $100 for two people.

For additional information and tickets contact Andy and Danielle Meister at [phone] or Justin Jones and Katie Alsup at [phone]. Tickets are also available from any Hilltop Club member and tickets will also be available at the door Saturday night.

Aside from special events, both the men’s side and the women’s side will meet on different days for a monthly meeting with a meal served that will help generate revenue for the club.

Alsup said, “The men will meet the third Thursday of every month. The women will meet the fourth Wednesday of every month at this time. We’ve learned about some other community groups that are meeting so we may have to change the date just to accommodate whoever wants to come because of course we want as many people to come that want to.”

Members of the newly formed Mount Pulaski Hilltop Club

“We have all kinds of ideas,” said the smiling and always energetic Alsup. “We’d like to do like a New Year’s Eve murder mystery dinner and stuff like that. We’d like to do three to four big events a year. We don’t want anybody to be bogged down by volunteering but we want committees for everything so everybody has a chance to enjoy. We don’t want it to be work. We want it to be fun and be worth it. It’s just a way to give back and have fun and do something good for doing good.”

The group has other ideas to help the youth in the community. “There is going to be a scholarship fund,” said Alsup, who was raised in Lincoln and now lives in Chestnut.

More members of the group chimed in with “providing coats for kids” and “helping with lunch money.”

Secretary Sheena Vinyard tossed in her two cents and said, “If we have any kind of family needs in the community” and added “maybe doing a private donation drive to help out kids.”

Vice-President Sam Brown, who works at Mount Pulaski Grade School cited the need for help and said, “We have so many teachers at school that need supplies for their students.”

Danielle Meister is another young woman in the club who has been inspired by the kindness of others. Meister is the Social Chair of the group and she was influenced by the “Moms Who Care - Lincoln” that Cindy Aussieker and Marla Williams formed locally to help provide students with everything from snacks to school supplies to personal hygiene items. Meister is completely on board with the group’s focus being aimed at helping kids and families in the community.

Hillary Cherry, a new member, added, “I didn’t know about the summer lunch program until we moved into the neighborhood we moved into now. There are kids here who don’t get lunch during the summer because they don’t go to school. They weren’t eating and that breaks my heart.” A neighbor of Cherry’s heads up a program to provide these kids with lunches during the summer.

Alsup also brought up the need for mentoring our young girls, especially the junior high age.

“They need a confidence boost because that’s a hard age,” said Alsup. “They need to be mentored on what they should and should not accept in life.” This is more timely than ever right now in our society. “They need to have positive influences outside of the home to look to,” added Alsup.

Brown nodded her head in agreement with Alsup. Brown, who is also the track coach at MPGS, says “I will stay with the school - like I will retire from there - just for the opportunity to be a mentor to the junior high kids. They are at that age where they just need encouragement.”

Brown was also instrumental in organizing “Girls on the Run” last fall for MPGS third and fourth grade girls. This program allowed girls to meet after school and not only run but also to engage in conversation, get to know each other better and build relationships built on mutual respect. The social aspect of the “Girls on the Run” was equally as important as the running.

Meanwhile, the social aspect of The Women of the Hilltop Club is also evident. This club is about making friendships and offering a support group for each other with the intention of giving back to the community.

There are a lot of things impressive about this group of ladies - most of them are not even from the community of Mount Pulaski but they live here now or in the surrounding area and they have recognized a need within the community and they have a passion to help others. Each one of these ladies brings to the organization a unique experience with education, jobs, careers and even motherhood and they have a desire to share their time and knowledge with one another in hopes of making the community a better place for everyone. Their focus is clearly on the future - our youth.

Finally, Alsup, who is very pleased with the interest in the club so far, summed it up nicely, "We’ve got a good group of ladies that want to get on board and have fun and make some money. We just want to do something special for these kids in the community.”

[Teena Lowery]