By Hub City Times staff

MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield chapter of “Turkey Hunters Care” presented the Marshfield PDC Orenda Center with 20 turkeys on Nov. 14, to provide program families and shelter residents with a festive Thanksgiving Day meal.

The Marshfield chapter donates yearly to the facility, as well as providing a dozen turkeys for a local community feed.

“This is a program that is run by the National Wild Turkey Federation,” explained Jerry Harvey. “We’ve been doing it for I believe it is 22 years now. We’ve been picking up turkeys and distributing them around the city of Marshfield.”

“It’s been quite an experience for me. I’ve met a lot of neat people and to be able to work with them,” added Jerry, who delivers the turkeys along with his wife, Lois. “Our program is called ‘Turkey Hunters Care.’ It was established quite a ways back and boy, it has just grown through the state of Wisconsin.”

 Jerry said that last year in Madison alone, over 7,000 turkeys were distributed.

“We want to make sure that everyone has something to make them feel good over the Thanksgiving holidays,” he added. “I don’t care if they use it at Thanksgiving or save it for Christmas, the idea is that you have something special. We are trying to give you something to make your day a little bit nicer.

Since 2001, chapters throughout North America have helped to ensure a festive holiday through the program, in which they “provide frozen, domestic turkeys to less fortunate families in their communities.”

 “We try to give back to the community, because our funding comes from the community,” Jerry stated.