Last Thursday, November 3rd, the Greater Hettinger Area Community really stepped up for the West River Health Services Foundation once again. Our 44th Annual “Community Turkey Luncheon” was a huge success due to over 100 volunteers, amazing bakers, chefs, cooks, turkey luncheon builders, servers, delivery folk, kitchen helpers, waiters, waitresses, cleanup crews and more! WOW! What a community!
We are so blessed to live in a community where the local grocery store (Kennedy’s Fresh Foods) wants our local nonprofits to be successful -- so they cooked 24 turkeys for us, let us use their facilities to cut and store all of the turkey and juices, plus ordered all of the tasty ingredients for our volunteers to do their thing. Then they ordered ten of our turkey meals for their employees and supported the cause with a healthy goodwill donation!
Plus our local KNDC Radio Station 1490 allowed us to be on their “This, That and the Other Thing” (TTO) talk show at least 4 times in the last 5 weeks and allowed us to record advertisements so they can run them -- and we’re on their Consolidated Channel promoting the event – plus, they ordered hot turkey meals as well!
And our local newspapers, the Adams County Record and Eido Connect, ran long articles on our coming back to host our 44th “Community Turkey Luncheon” again! And they helped us create advertisements and ran them the last five weeks to let people know we were back! Plus, now we’re giving the results via their newspapers, with photos to boot!
THANK YOU to all of the over 100 volunteers who gave their time to help us -- put up posters throughout our community, cut up all of the 24 turkeys, decorated the Lutheran Church beautifully, cooked homemade gravy from all the bones until 2am, made five roasters of dressing the night before, brought 97 pies in because they care about this event, came in to slice all of the pies and place them in containers for the big day, organized and executed the assembly line to build over 400 delivery meals, made another two roasters full of dressing and gravy when we were running low, got in their cars and ran to Kennedy’s to get the ingredients when we needed them, ran home to grab two more pies in their refrigerator because we were almost out and they wanted to fill every order. And the cleanup crew who vacuumed every piece of carpet, scrubbed every pot and pan, cleaned every counter top and left the place cleaner than we found it! WE ARE SO GRATEFUL.
And our community for coming to the event and enjoying the hot turkey meal with the amazing slice of pie – all for a goodwill donation (anywhere from a few coins to $300!). And our community that was at work (because that’s what Western Dakotan’s do on a Thursday) who ordered delivered meals – whether one meal for themselves, two meals delivered to friends or parents, or 26 meals delivered to the local public school teachers. And how ‘bout the community members who called and said they’d like to help with this event? WE ARE GRATEFUL.
When it was all said and done, we raised over $10,100 gross! An all-time high for this event! We do not know the net yet, but we will let you know shortly. We know for sure that we should be able to make a large gift to the Hettinger Backpack Program, so our youth who need more food on the weekends will surely have it. Plus, we should be able to add $5-7,000 to our WRHS Foundation’s “Academic Loan Program,” thereby creating an opportunity for a college upperclassman to receive a significant loan, if they agree to come apply for a job with West River Health Services or Western Horizons Living Centers. Then in less than two years, the entire loan plus interest will be forgiven.
And we created over 625 meals – also an all-time high! Carolyn Van Wyk, who started this fundraiser 44+ years ago with the WRHS Auxiliary, must be smiling down on us from above. Her son Kory still helps with this event – usually as a runner from the meal builders on the stage to the delivery personnel. This year, he jumped in his pickup and helped us deliver meals himself! Cuz that’s what needed to be done.
The volunteers who made this successful event possible were: Barb West, Christi Schmitz, Staci Miller, Cindy (Rick) Olson, Suzan Hanson, Eve Safratowich, Jennifer Seamands, Mary Krein, Cindy Vik, Erin Timm, Sheri Uecker, Cindy Ham, Micky Rafferty, Kim Erickson, Tenille Guthrie, Molly Wolf, DeNae Henderson, Dana Andress, Brett Henderson, Beth Erickson, Toots Bjerklie, Carmen Strid, Jodi Olind, Allen McIntyre, Eva Knutson, Alyson Kornele, Phyllis Andress, Tracy Finck, Chris Bliss, Jezzele Salazar, Brenda Dragoo, Dr. John & Shannon Kludt, Mary Steg, Ardmore & Becky Forthun, Kory Van Wyk, Howard Nelson, Dennis Knutson, Wayne Koltis, Charlie Ahman, Manette Obrigewitch, Bekki Holzkamm, Bienvenido Tuanzon, Michelle Abonado, Tammy Tamboong, Jill Sailer, Alisha Eggebo, Dr. Carrie Ann Ranum, Cindy (Del) Olson, Barb Luger, Steve Hedstrom, Dave Erickson, Steve McFarland, Bonnnie Smith, Lane & Kristi Miller, Tony Hanson, Kevin Erdahl, Leonard Bjerklie and 53 pie bakers who baked 97 pies and 608 slices (to be exact)!
It certainly takes a village. What a community. WOW! THANK YOU.
Onward to our 45th Annual “Community Turkey Luncheon” on November 2nd, 2023! We’re not quite sure how we can top this one, but we’ll sure try. After all, we’re only as good as our last at bat!
Next up will be our events leading into our 5th consecutive participation with “Giving Hearts Day” on February 9, 2023. We already have $100,000 in matching funds from the Roger Follmer Estate. Now, we need to “match the match.” There’s no doubt, we’ll be out asking again Hettinger and surrounding area. And we know you’ll try to do your best to give a little to our healthcare system’s future. Thank goodness, it’s what you do. And believe me, we are grateful.
By Ted Uecker, WRHS Foundation