A Tradition of Togetherness

For four decades, the Summit Club of Flower Mound has been working to bring people together — sometimes when it seemed impossible.

On Sunday, April 8, in coordination with the Women of Flower Mound and The Mound Foundation, the Summit Club will celebrate its 40th annual Easter Sunrise Service on the Mound. The service will be conducted by the Village Church.

The Summit Club, as its name implies, began in the early 1970s “as a way to get friends back together,” said Albert Picardi of the club.

“During the 1960s, a group of Flower Mound residents voted a few times to dissolve the town. Long-time friends were on both sides of the elections and had stopped being friends. Others seeing this started the Summit Club to bring the friends back to speaking terms. One of the early rules was that politics could not be talked about at any meeting.”

Bryan Webb, one of two Summit Club vice presidents, said bringing residents together remains the mission of the club and his first experience with their annual Easter service was quite moving.

“It is hard to put into words the feeling I got when I first attended the Sunrise Service,” Webb said. “It was one of the most religious experiences I have ever felt. To be surrounded by neighbors, some I knew, some I did not, listening to the words of the pastor and watching in silence as a new day was born was inspiring. I walked from the Mound feeling closer to my God and closer to my community than I had felt in years. A truly special event.”

For the Summit Club, the Easter service is always a big deal, Picardi said.

“The sunrise service is one of our highlights each year. Some years we have had 1,300-plus people enjoy the service,” he said.

But the club has done much more to promote a sense of community in Flower Mound and bring residents together. The Summit Club often cooks the thousands of hotdogs served at town events ranging from the Children’s Independence Day Parade to Fire Prevention Week, and it sponsors several Boy Scout troops.

The group also gives out annual awards to the top local students in elementary and middle schools in math, science and English.

The Summit Club also organized the town’s early Christmas Parades, though that function has been taken over by the town, and it will be cooking hotdogs for the Keep Flower Mound Beautiful Clean-Up event on April 21.

Besides the help it provides at events, Webb said the club’s members serve as “something of community historians. We share stories of the early days to ensure our history lives on.”

Picardi said that aspect is a great source of satisfaction.

“I really love the history I learn from being associated with the Summit Club,” he said.

On Easter Sunday, those attending the service should park at the Tom Thumb at 2600 Flower Mound Road, which is just west of the Mound. The Summit Club advises being at the Mound by 6:30 a.m., wearing clothing appropriate to the prairie grasslands over your church attire. The service will begin at 6:45 a.m. and the sun will rise at 7:06 a.m.

Visit www.summitclub.org for more information about the Summit Club.