By Mark Gregory
Editorial Director
@Hear_The_Beard
mark@buglemewspapers.com
Soldiers in the United States military stationed overseas long for the comforts of home – especially during the holiday season and one Joliet restaurant is doing its part to send some of home.
Hooters, located at 3301 Hennepin Drive — on the outskirts of the Louis Joliet Mall — is participating in the corporate program that donates calendars to troops serving internationally.
Customers can purchase the calendar for $13.99, which comes with a souvenir cup, a free Bud Light and $100 in coupons to be used throughout the year.
Instead of taking the calendar home, the customer has the opportunity to donate the calendar to be sent to the troop, while enjoying the other perks themselves.
“We really took the ball and ran with it this year,” said Assistant Manager Tim Puleo. “It’s home. It is baseball, apple pie and Hooters and it means a lot for people overseas. We got an email and said that a family member in Kuwait got a calendar from Joliet – not just from Hooters, from us. It is a very small world and that gets us pumped up about it and we want to do more.”
Puleo manages the Joliet location along with General Manager Nicki Sancen who last year was Manager of the Year.
Management would like to see as many calendars sent to the troops as possible.
“We have done very well, but we are coming down the stretch,” Puleo said. “We have a few weeks left and we hope to get another 100. We might have done 100 total to the troops last year and we are nearing 300 this year. Our goal is 1,000 sold and 400 to the troops.”
Getting a piece of home is something the girls want to be able to provide the troops overseas.
“It is amazing. What else would you want when you are over there?” said Chloe, 21, from Plainfield. “Under every picture, it says where the girls are from and that lets them maybe see their hometown. And [$1 from every calendar sold] goes to the fight against breast cancer, so it helps even more.”
Mia (on the left) and Chloe (on the right) pose at Hooters in Joliet to support troops serving internationally. (Submitted Photo)
Chloe is one of three Joliet waitresses to make this year’s calendar, as she joins Mia and Virali. The trio makes up three of 200 girls from six countries featured in the calendar, which made its debut 35 years ago, in 1986.
Chloe, who is making her second appearance in the calendar, is also one of only a select few Hooter’s girls on the commemorative cup.
“Being on the cup is such a huge honor. Only a selected few out of the many girls that were chosen to be in the calendar are put on the cup,” Chloe said. “When selling the calendar, each one is rolled into a 2019 cup and it is a preview of what is inside. I am so happy to say that I am part of the Hooters image they are trying to portray. I, myself, have at least 20 cups from the previous years that I like to keep as a trophy and memorabilia from my amazing experiences being in the Hooters international calendar.”
Being in the calendar has become a family tradition, as Chloe’s sister Chanel was featured three times from 2014-16, while Chloe was in it in 2017 and again this year. The only year the family missed was when Chloe was in North Carolina for school.
Joining the sisters as a repeat calendar girl is Mia, 19, from Minooka.
She is featured for the second time in as many years – which are the only two years she met the 18-year-old age requirement.
“When I first interviewed, they told me I should try for the calendar when I could,” she said. “I had to wait a year, but now I have been in twice. It is for fun – no one really treats it as a competition – it is more just about a chance to be in the calendar.
“The photo shoots are fun and you get to meet girls your age who are doing the same thing as you and the friends you make are friends for a long time. It has inspired me to go after a modeling career and I am hoping to dip my toes in the water soon.”
Like Chloe, Mia is happy to be able to help send some of home to the military.
“It gives back to the people that are fighting for our country and for many [customers] when they hear we are doing the donation – that is what sells them,” she said. “It is not about us in the calendar, it is about the donations.”
Calendar donations are being taken until Jan. 1.