For the 24th year, local realtors will host a two-day turkey drive in front of The Market at Park City to raise money to provide Thanksgiving dinner for thousands of Utah families.
Organizer JanaLee Jacobson says strong sponsor support has put them well on their way toward funding the 4,000 turkeys, an order placed back in March.
“It's actually a very large community effort,” Jacobson said on the KPCW “Local News Hour” Tuesday. “We have gone to many partners that are in that real estate world; developers, builders, property managers, and we have asked them to sponsor a portion of this. So that's where a lot of our money comes from to pay for the turkeys, and the rest of it comes from the community.”
Organizer Graham Harter says the annual luncheon Thursday will bring together hundreds of realtors to hear updates from local resorts and contribute to the turkey drive.
Supporters will also be collecting donations in front of The Market on Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“At this point, we are just looking for monetary donations, and we would love to for people to swing by The Market this Thursday or Friday when we're out there and say hello, hang out for a little bit, learn a little bit more about this great program that we're doing and hopefully put forward some contributions,” Harter said.
Jacobsen says requests for turkeys went up by 40% this year. The foundation will provide 800 more this year, a total of 4,000 birds, but won’t be able to meet that full demand.
“Almost half of them do stay in Park City or the surrounding area, Park City and Heber and in Coalville and stuff like that, and the rest go elsewhere,” she said.
The largest share goes to the Christian Center which helps distribute the turkeys and traditional fixings to families in need.
Charitable contributions can be made in person and online here.
