When you see a need, fill it.
Our Story…

The Fall Funding will be announced in September 2026. As a reminder, please save the date for The Day in the Park, Sunday, August 16, 2026. Please join your neighbors at The Day in the Park this summer, at North Park, Spring Green, for music, games, food, fun, and a coming together of our communities to raise money for those who, through no fault of their own, are in need of a boost up. We hope to see you there! For more information please go to www.4petesake.com. Thank you.

2025 Spring Funding Recipients
You matter. The River Valley community cares about each other. This is never more apparent than when I look at the cycle of help and hope provided by 4PeteSake in our community each year.

The next Fall Funding Round will be announced in September. If you, or a loved one, face extraordinary financial need and are unable, through no fault of your own, to provide for yourselves. Your community is here for you.

The generosity of people in the River Valley has brought comfort to the following community members over the last year. I invite you to read their stories and know that they are forever grateful for the contributions you have made in the past. You made a difference.

Troy Vanderheyden

Troy and Cerry welcomed me into their home with comfort and open hearts. It wasn’t long
before I felt that we somehow had known each other for years. It was the ease with which they
shared Troy’s story, but really their story, with me, a stranger to them, in their home that struck
me so strongly. The back and forth, the respect, and the kindness that they showed each other
opened the space for me, almost as an observer, to lean in and inhale their story.

Troy grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and then married. It is a place that still has a pull on him
and is where his first daughter lives with her four children. A series of jobs and promotions
brought him to Madison where he had four additional children with his now ex-wife. When they
divorced, and then he married Cerry, they all remained family, raising his first five children in the
company of Kiera, the child that Troy and Cerry had together. Family is what Troy comes back
to with joy, appreciation, gratitude, and hope for the future. They are what he lives for.

Because of his love for his family, and dream of getting better for them, I learned about
Shawano Lake west of Green Bay and now want to visit it! If Troy can get well enough to qualify
for the double transplant that will give him quality of life, his goal is to take all of his kids, their
partners and his grandchildren to Shawano Lake for a reunion of sorts. It would be a time of
celebration, game playing, joke telling, and teasing, all imbued with so much love.

When Cerry and Troy look back at the life they had before Troy’s troubles began, they talk of all
the things he loved to do: gardening, wood working, holidays (celebrating and decorating for)
camping and helping others. With tears in both of their eyes, they shared how much they miss
those times, how much Troy needs a purpose, and how the treatment, dialysis, infections, and
hospitalizations have taken so much out of him. And then they quickly revert to talking about
their gratitude.

They had always thought that 4PeteSake was for someone else, someone who “needed it
more.” Like so many recipients with whom I have talked, they wanted to take care of
themselves. They are hard workers, they don’t ask for help…and yet they find themselves
needing it.

Then 4PeteSake, you, your neighbors, the people of their community stepped up to help them
and they couldn’t be more grateful. They want you to know…Thank you. With tears of
appreciation Troy said, “I can’t express it enough…”

Steve Hilston

I met with Irene and Michael at their home in Spring Green to learn about Steve, who, tragically, passed away on November 14th last fall. The family did a beautiful job of describing Steve in his obituary, found below, and without detracting from that at all I want to share that the love and appreciation felt by Irene and Michael toward Steve permeated all that they said. They are clearly a family with huge hearts, a drive to help others, and a wonderful sense of humor, playfulness and joy in each other. The loss of Steve has left a huge hole and yet they shared his story with occasional laughter and much appreciation of who he had been.

They shared the story of when Irene and Steve met, thanks to her sister, at a dance club in Madison. Irene was encouraged by her sister to ask Steve to dance, and, as they say, the rest is history. Michael shared, with a bit of a twinkle in his eye at the thought of his dad, about the cat named Mein Schatz who Steve secretly preferred over the other cats, and how his dad loved to mow and became competitive with the neighbor about his mowing! Steve loved to cook and was the chief cook in the family (even if he used Irene’s recipes ;)), and he would happily drop everything to go fishing anywhere the fish were biting. Above all, Steve found joy in his family, and he is deeply missed.

Steven Fred Hilston was called to eternal life on November 14th, 2025, surrounded by his wife, children, grandchildren and his brother and sister at University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison, WI after a brief illness. Steven was born on February 8, 1963. He was the second of four children born to Charles and Luella (Cox) Hilston. Steven was born in Trenton, MI, and moved to a few other states with his family before settling in Madison, WI. Steven graduated from Lafollette High School in 1981. He attended MATC in Madison and earned his real estate license. Steven held many jobs in the Madison area, the last 25 years with WISCO Hotel Properties Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites as their Chief Engineer, up until the time of his illness. Steven met his wife, Irene Fountain-Payne, in February 1991. After marrying on June 15th, 1991, he joined his wife in Spring Green, WI where they owned a house and several retail businesses at The House On The Rock tourist attraction and Christmas Kiosks at West Town Mall in Madison, WI. They settled in and raised their family in Spring Green becoming active members of the community. Steven volunteered for many school projects, including installing playground equipment at the Spring Green Elementary School, he supported his children by attending all their band and choir concerts and sports activities. Steven would also volunteer at the Community Food Pantry of Spring Green and volunteer at many of the local fundraisers for community events. Steven was a passionate Packer and Badger Football fan and loved to cook special game day meals for the family to gather and to watch the games together. He was also a Badger Hockey fan and attended many of the games with his two sons over the years. Steven was also a history buff and loved to go fishing with his children and grandchildren along the Wisconsin River or at Mirror Lake in the Wisconsin Dells. Steven lived his life to the fullest for his children and grandchildren that he so dearly loved. He made memories of a lifetime cooking all the family meals, building forts in the backyard, weekends were spent in the Wisconsin Dells at the Pioneer Park summer family home on Mirror Lake, with sweet treat trips to the Goody Goody Gum Drop Shoppe. Steven had a sense of humor that included every “dad joke” on the planet when you would least expect it and would make his children cry in laughter. There were no bounds to where he would go, including Fort Jackson, SC for his daughter’s Army graduation ceremony and to Camp Pendleton, CA for his son’s Marine Corps graduation ceremony.

Please join your neighbors at The Day in the Park this summer, Sunday, August 16, North Park, Spring Green, for music, games, food, fun, and a coming together of our communities to raise money for those who, through no fault of their own, are in need of a boost up. We hope to see you there! For more information please go to www.4petesake.com. Thank you. And, thank you, Irene and Michael, for sharing Steve’s story with us all.

Amy Peteson