Thirty-four Lions and 6 Boy Scouts from Troop 445 assisted with the preparation and the Turkey TROT. Thanksgiving food was delivered to 27 families the Saturday before Thanksgiving by 9 teams of – oops, not turkeys – Lions. The teams came in early Saturday, partook of some buns and coffee, loaded their vehicles and were on the road before 9 AM. It was a chilly morn that required a nice warm coat and some gloves. But all were a happy gobbling group!
Lion Chris Fletcher had contacted all the families telling them that the Lions would be delivering Thanksgiving dinner. Each team also notified their families of the delivery. Lion Bob Newlin was in contact with the schools and set up the Food Drives for nonperishables. Bob and his team of truckers and loaders gathered the food on Thursday and Friday. The school food drives collected approximately 2500 items. All the food was not used for Thanksgiving and is stored at Hyatt Building and Supply until Christmas.
The sorting and packing team was busy for 3 ½ hours on Friday in the basement of Hyatt’s. You could see ten or more Lions chirping around sorting food and then packing it for the 27 families. These Lions worked nonstop. All the family boxes were neatly places on a team pallet. Saturday morning, Hyatt’s able bodied employ brought the pallets out one by one for the teams to pick up in their parking lot.
The perishables and turkeys were packed that AM for each team. The teams had the challenge of loading their three boxes for each family, keeping them straight and then delivering them to their respective families. And so they trotted off! By 9:30 half of the teams had reported back and were finished.
The project enabled 27 families to have a nice turkey dinner, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunches as well as soups and then another dinner of pasta and sauce. Fresh fruit and fresh squash were also included. Nicely packaged pumpkin bread loaves prepared and donated by the Goldstein family topped the delivery. The project consumed 160 hours of 34 Lions and 6 Boy Scouts time and costed the Lions Club $ 1286.
Great Job Lions! Thank you to all for your support. We again have served our community via a Turkey Trot!!!