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 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 (217) 737-1802 or Justin Jones and Katie Alsup at (217)
737-0317. 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.”
“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.”
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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]
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