Mary Shultz knew her friends and neighbors in the Old Mission Women's Club were special - so when she had the chance to brag about them, she did.
Shultz, after seeing an ad in a national women's magazine, entered the Edy's Slow Churned Neighborhood Salute ice cream block party contest last spring by sending in a letter describing what makes her neighborhood special.
"I live 16 miles out in the country and my neighbors are not as close as a city block, but I have 135 really great women friends who live on the Old Mission Peninsula that I consider neighbors. These friends and neighbors all belong to the Old Mission Women's Club," wrote Shultz in her entry letter.
When Shultz was notified that she was one of 1,500 winners of an ice cream social for 100 guests, she wasn't really surprised.
"I wouldn't have won just because I have six neighbors on Old Mission Road. It is really the club that won, I wrote the application but the club won," said Shultz, who treated members of the women's club and their families to the 19 flavors of Edy's ice cream that arrived at her home, packed in dry ice, courtesy of Federal Express.
Club members not only celebrated Shultz's win on Sunday, they also kicked off the 75th anniversary of the organization.
"We had not planned to kick off the anniversary year with an ice cream social, but then Mary got busy and came up with this wonderful prize," said Mary Helen Dumon, co-chair of the 75th anniversary committee.
"She turned it over to the committee and we ran with it," said Dumon who noted that the group has come a long way in 75 years.
What started out as a group with eight members 75 years ago, now caps it's membership at 150 who work on projects to benefit their community.
Over the past year the group has donated more than $5,000 to non-profit organizations including the Cherryland Humane Society, Child and Family Services, Community Health Clinic, Goodwill Inn, Grant Traverse Laundry Project, Dougherty House, Munson Hospice, Old Mission Peninsula School, Old Mission Peninsula School Scholarship Fund, Paperworks, Peninsula Community Library and Peninsula Fire and Rescue.