The NWTF East Coast Gobblers of Manitowoc participated in the Turkey Hunters Care Program by raising money to purchase turkeys and donate them to their local food pantries to help those in need.
 
In 2007 they purchased 190 turkeys and were the #1 Chapter in the State and #5 in the Nation.
 
In 2008 they purchased 772 turkeys and became #1 in the Nation with the help of Festival Foods and Copp's Food Center.
 
In 2009 Wally Mielke, Jr., President of the East Coast Gobblers opened up an Account with the help of Associated Bank called the "Big Bird Bucks".  All donations were deposited into this account in order to purchase the turkeys for the local food pantries again this year.  Thanks to approximately 56 donors, which consists of local companies and private individuals, we raised a little over $7,500 and were able to purchase 1,011 turkeys.
 
The  turkeys are being donated to:
 
Peter's Pantry in Manitowoc
Faith Lutheran Church in Valders
Kingdom Come Pantry in Oconto Falls
Bethel Baptist Church in Green Bay

 
 
This picture includes Carol Stuckmann (Left), Committee Member of East Coast Gobblers and Linda Wilke (Right), Assistant Manager at Associated Bank with the donation display that was posted at Associated Bank inside Festival Foods for 2 weeks.

 
This picture includes (starting from the left) Roseann Erdmann and Bob Freiboth, both of Peter’s Pantry; Lane Landon, Copps Food Center; Mary Stelzer, Oconto Falls Kingdom Come Food Pantry; Wally Mielke, East Coast Gobblers of Manitowoc; and Jon Wieser and John Bilski, both of Festival Foods with the turkeys that were donated by the East Coast Gobblers of Manitowoc thru the NWTF Turkey Hunters Care Program.
 

Turkey Hunter’s Care

The Local Chapter, Bluff Country Long Spurs of the NWTF received donations from local businesses & sportsman’s groups to distribute approximately 140 turkeys to families in need during Thanksgiving and Christmas. The businesses, organizations & individuals that participated were Bluff Country Long Spurs, Design Homes, Peoples State Bank, Piggly Wiggly, Prairie Industries, Prairie Rod & Gun Club, 3M, Randy Weeks, and Wal-Mart. The turkeys were distributed by the Coulee Cap Office through Wal-Mart & Piggly Wiggly.  Other areas that received turkeys were the Lancaster Food Pantry, Gays Mills Food Pantry, West Grant Lions Club and Memorial Hospital.

We wish to thank all that participated with their generous donations in helping others during the Holiday season.

“The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are times for family, but they are also a time when many families are in need,” said NWTF CEO George Thornton. “Turkey Hunters Care is a great way for the NWTF’s committed volunteers to help these families during some of the most celebrated holidays of the year.”

The NWTF is a national nonprofit conservation organization that was founded in 1973 and has worked with wildlife agencies to restore wild turkey populations from 1.3 million wild turkeys to nearly 7 million today. Now, NWTF’s volunteers raise funds and work daily to improve critical wildlife habitat, increase access to public hunting land and introduce new people to the outdoors and hunting. Together, the NWTF's partners, sponsors and grassroots members have raised and spent more than $286 million preserving hunting heritage and conserving nearly 14 million acres of wildlife habitat.

For more information about the NWTF’s Turkey Hunters Care program, call (800) THE-NWTF or visit www.nwtf.org.

The photos are students and teachers from Fox River Academy and Environmental charter school in Appleton and Len Doran president of Neenah-Menasha Strutters chapter of National Wild Turkey Federation. The Strutters work closely with the Fox River Academy students on different projects thought out the year. Each year, prior to Thanksgiving, the students do a food drive for the local  food pantry and the Strutters donate turkeys. This year the students collect over 1000 food items and the Strutters donated 50 turkeys.
 
These students are fantastic!!
 
Submitted by: Wayne Schroeder

Each year the Dodge County Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation participates in the Turkey Hunters Care Program.  We buy  Turkeys from a local store and donate them to a local Food Pantry.  This year, with the assistance of the Beaver Dam Piggly Wiggly Store,  we were able to donate over 20 turkeys to the Beaver Dam Food Pantry located in the St. Vincent De Paul building on S. Spring St.  We sincerely hope this will help make several families Thanksgivings a little better.

L/R   Dodge County Chapter Vice President, Darrell Ritter, President Dean Ziegel, Food Pantry Coordinator Sheila Crook, Sec/Tres Noreane Ziegel, Committee Member Scott Hembrook and Piggly Wiggly Store Owner Daryl Schoenfeld.

Turkey hunters offer frozen harvest!

Kevin Kirkpatrick / Daily Register
Ryan Kropp, an employee at Pierce’s Marketplace in Portage, helps Jim Farrington load frozen turkeys into the back of a pickup truck Friday. The local chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation is donating turkeys to local food pantries this holiday season. The turkeys were purchased from Pierce’s.

 

The local chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation is helping less fortunate families this holiday season by donating frozen turkeys to area food pantries.

Members of the River Valley Chapter of the NWTF delivered turkeys Friday to the Pardeeville/Wyocena Community Helping Hands Pantry; the Poynette, Arlington, Dekorra Community Food Pantry; and the Southern Columbia County Food Pantry in Rio. Each pantry received 20 turkeys to distribute as they wish this holiday season.

"We give away turkeys every year," said Jim Farrington of Rio, the chapter's president. "We purchased a few more this year than we have in the past."

The turkeys were purchased by the group from Pierce's Marketplace in Portage. Chris Dufeck, co-manager of Pierce's Marketplace, said he sold them for a discounted rate. The Columbia County Sporting Alliance also donated money to this year's donations.

The donations are part of the NWTF's Turkey Hunters Care program. The program is about brightening the holidays for others, Farrington said.

The turkeys are to be used to help families complete a traditional Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.

"The clients come in (to the food pantry) for their monthly commodities, and they get the turkeys then," Farrington said.

According to its Web site, 90,800 turkeys have been donated nationwide since the Turkey Hunters Care program began in 2001. The River Valley Chapter has donated at least 40 turkeys a year since 2001, Farrington said.

The NWTF is a national nonprofit conservation organization that was founded in 1973 and has worked with wildlife agencies to restore wild turkey populations from 1.3 million wild turkeys to nearly 7 million today.

Today, NWTF's volunteers raise money and work daily to improve critical wildlife habitat, increase access to public hunting land and introduce new people to the outdoors and hunting. The NWTF's partners, sponsors and grassroots members have raised and spent more than $286 million preserving our hunting heritage and conserving nearly 14 million acres of wildlife habitat.

The River Valley chapter, which encompasses Columbia and Sauk counties and parts of Marquette County, has more than 100 members.

kkirkpatrick@

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