Russell Dennis is providing a Thanksgiving feast this year, but he won’t be there when it’s served.
Seeing an announcement that the Denver Rescue Mission was thousands of frozen turkeys short of its goal, he bought six frozen birds and dropped them off Sunday at the rescue mission’s Lawrence Street Shelter.
“People have to eat. I’m trying to make sure a few people get a bit to eat,” said Dennis, as he lifted the turkeys from his car trunk. “I’ll probably try to come back next week and bring half a dozen more.”
The rescue mission, which provides food and shelter to the poor and homeless, has been asking for donations of frozen Thanksgiving turkeys weighing at least 12 pounds since Nov. 1.
On Friday, the mission said it had received 1,470 frozen turkeys, far short of its 6,000-bird goal and also short of the more than 4,000 turkeys donated by that time last year.
The turkeys will be used to feed the poor and homeless throughout Denver and northern Colorado, said Greta Walker, Denver Rescue Mission spokeswoman.
About 1,250 turkeys will be distributed as part of “Banquet-in-a-Box” meals at the mission’s transitional living facility Nov. 23.
The organization will serve up another 250 turkeys at its Great Thanksgiving Banquet on Nov. 24. Gov. Bill Ritter hosts that event. Turkeys will also be sent to other facilities.
Walker said the mission has received almost 5,000 requests for turkey and typically receives about 10,000 turkeys during its annual drive.
“We are not counting turkeys that have been promised, only turkeys in the freezer,” the organization said in a statement Friday.
Cars flowed steadily to Lawrence Street on Sunday, including vans packed with orange-clad Broncos fans on their way to Invesco Field.
Walker said Sunday was the strongest donation day of the drive so far, with about 1,000 turkeys coming in.
Combined with the 900 turkeys collected Saturday, The Rescue Mission has amassed nearly 4,000 turkeys.
“The community is really responding,” Walker said.
Former Bronco Mark Schlereth was slated to be at the shelter from 5 to 7:30 a.m. today to give a tub of chile to the first 100 donors of the day and to tell them how to keep helping.
Donations are tax-deductible, but Dennis and others who dropped off turkeys Sunday left without a receipt. “I’m not looking for a tax write-off,” Dennis said.
