Carthage Salvation Army gives 140 turkeys to needy families

“Someone have a “C-plus”?”

“Yeah, right over here.”

“Aw… good, the car outside needs a C-plus.”

“Oops, sorry — this is just a plain C turkey.”

“I could grab a marker and add a plus to it.”

The quip elicited some chuckles among the volunteers distributing turkeys to needy families Wednesday morning at the Carthage Salvation Army.

Turkeys were being bagged and marked with the letters of the alphabet to denote the bird’s size. Larger families were receiving heavier turkeys (the C-range) while smaller families and couples without children received a smaller turkey (B or A turkeys).

The right-sized turkey was then passed on to the handler, who lugged it outside to the recipient idling inside their vehicles in the parking lot. Cars were stacked up as deep as a dozen or more, as they waited for someone to take their car, make their way over to the distribution door, and receive their frozen turkey that will be prepped and served next week or on Christmas day.
“We’re so thankful,” said Luis Vazquez. “Thank you!”

In all, 140 turkeys were handed out, and about 150 were purchased altogether, said Carthage Salvation Army Capt. Richard McDonald. A majority of turkeys went to medium- and small-sized families, which was a bit surprising.

Because the local group is already in debt to the national Salvation Army office because of last year’s holiday season, where they had to purchase all the food they handed out, handouts were limited to turkeys.

But at least needy Carthage families had turkeys this year.

Having the folks drive up to receive their turkeys was also something new that will likely be incorporated in future years.

“The nicest thing is that we don’t have people standing out in the rain. (Beth Wilkes) had the idea to have them drive around this year… and it’s working well,” McDonald said.

Among the volunteers helping with distribution were about a dozen Jasper school students and a Jasper County sheriff.

“We are very grateful for their help,” McDonald said.