According to a recent article in the Pantagraph, several residents from Hudson, Ill., will be spending their Saturday together for the Little Black Mountain Poker Run.

The event will be sponsored by the friends of Amy Maurer and the other five Illinois residents killed in a plane crash March 21 in Harlan County.

Victims were Amy Maurer, 38, and her husband, Don Maurer Jr., 40, both of Carlock; Amy's brother, Brad Webb, 34, Carlock; Erica Edgington, 27, Webb's girlfriend, also of Carlock; and Curt Piercy, 41, and his wife, Linda, 42, both of Normal.

Proceeds after the poker run will benefit the volunteers of the Harlan County Rescue Squad for their work in retrieving the crash victims' bodies from Little Black Mountain.

"This is something we want to do to show our appreciation for the work they did for us," said Gavin Pitcher, a Bloomington firefighter and friend of the victims, in a recent Pantagraph article. "I can't think of a better idea to do for these guys down there."

During the poker run, participants pay an entry fee to drive to several locations to retrieve cards to make up a poker hand. The best hand wins.

The top three hands in the run will split half of the pot.

Mona Fogle, one of the poker run volunteers, said she was pleased the event would benefit the rescue squad workers.

"They are angels. They found them. They took care of them," she said.

Money from events will buy all-terrain vehicles for the rescue squad.

According to Jamie Huckleby, secretary/treasurer for the non-profit Harlan County Rescue Squad, the squad had 30 mountain rescues last year, and members had to use their own four-wheel drive vehicles and ATVs for all of them.

"It would be nice to have that equipment to keep on hand at our station," Huckleby said.

He said the squad never expected anything in return for looking for the missing plane and its passengers.

"We just wish the outcome of finding them could have been a lot different for them and their families. We all wish they would have survived," said Huckleby.