By Jeanine Fassl
Contributor
In keeping with the spirit of Christmas giving, a check for $3,500 was presented to the Whitewater Food Pantry through the generosity of 56 employees at Provisur Technologies (formerly Weiler & Co.) located in Whitewater.
The week before Christmas, the Mega Millions (multi-state) Lottery was at a very high level so a group of Provisur employees pitched in for a ticket. The drawing was held Dec. 17 and the following day, eight winning tickets were claimed in Wisconsin, including the one purchased by this group of people in Whitewater.
Skip Hoechbauer, the leader of this lottery pool, was excited to tell his co-workers of their good fortune but after the group felt after they did the math they learned each individual would get a much smaller amount than anticipated.
A proposal was then made to the group to donate the winning ticket to the Whitewater Food Pantry and within three hours, all 56 stakeholders unanimously agreed. The President of the Whitewater Community Foundation, Russ Devitt, was contacted to explore the idea of using the Foundation to “pass through” the money to the Whitewater Food Pantry. In addition, Provisur has a Matching Charitable Gift Program that will send money to the Food Pantry as well.
The time between claiming the winnings and making the donation was lengthy to work out the myriad of details including a lesson in how the Lottery works.
However, the intent two months ago, to give the donation to help as many people as possible for as long as possible finally happened and will surely be put to good use assisting the more than 400 families that utilize the Whitewater Food Pantry each month.
The Provisur Technologies employees that were part of the gifting of their lottery winnings included: Chris Albrecht, Cheryl Beese, Sandy Blaedow, Ken Bowser, Shawn Butterfield, Rob Chasco, Tom Dillemuth, Eric Gerlach, Jessica Haberman, Tim Hahn, Doug Hahn, Matt Hamilton, Tim Hamilton, Rick Hendrickson, Skip Hoechbauer, Walter Jackson, Joe Johnson, Steve Jones, William Kahlke, Kristi Kelly, Roger Kienbaum, Virginia Knuteson, David Lee, Beth Markgraff, Mark Masterson, Andrew McGrath, Scott Mclean, Jim Newmann, Greg Olds, Thomas O’Neil, Mike Paitel, William Parker, Sheri Peardon, Larry Pechous, John Peitz, Joshua Pempek, Wayne Quass, Tim Roberts, Dave Rook, Doug Root, Steve Schmatz, Brad Schumacher, James Schumacher, Roger Sdano, Mike Sisco, Pam Stegehuis, Greg Thatcher, Michelle Thomas, Craig Thompson, Curt Thompson, Pete Venturini, Matt Weiler, Jeff Wiedenhoeft and William Woods.
Their wish, not surprisingly, was for a very, Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year for the community as well as the people served by the Whitewater Food Pantry.
