WRHS Foundation Serves Over 700 Meals & Raises Over $12,000 Gross From 45th Annual Community Turkey Luncheon!

Just when you think there's absolutely no way the West River Health Services Foundation and it's huge team of volunteers could exceed last year's phenomenal 625 meals served, they do just that! That's right! On Thursday, November 2^nd, the WRHS Foundation and over 100 WRHS and Hettinger area volunteers served up over 700 hot turkey lunches with homemade pie at the 45^th Annual "WRHS Community Turkey Luncheon" at the Hettinger Lutheran Church Basement from 11am to 1pm. It's quite an undertaking to cook and slice two dozen, 21-pound turkeys, boil down the turkey bones for eight roasters of homemade gravy, create 8 roasters of tasty dressing, bake 119 various flavored pies and cut them into nearly 800 huge slices, pour cranberries into 350 to-go containers, build over 400 hot turkey lunch to-go orders, decorate the church exquisitely, provide water and coffee on the tables for everyone, clear the tables, clean the church! Wow!

It all starts with the WRHS Auxiliary. After all, they ran this well-oiled machine for 42 straight years -- until they disbanded in 2019. The WRHS Foundation contacted most of the stalwart leaders of that crew and decided to keep the tradition alive. Barb West, the most fearless of all, said she was "in" to run the pie room and make sure the delivered orders went smoothly. Christi Schmitz was willing to pull together her amazing hot turkey lunch building team (they're the ones behind the curtain and on the stage, building over 400 to-go orders). Suzan Hanson was willing to boil down the bones till 1:00am on successive nights to provide the homemade gravy. Eve Safratowich and Jennifer Seamands were willing to mix up 8 roasters of tasty dressing the day before and the day of the event (including still using Jennifer's mom's 1920's baby basinet for mixing. It works perfect!). Cindy Ham was willing to still develop beautiful posters and answer the phones for day of event delivery orders. Mary Krein, Carmen Strid, and Jill Sailer were willing to fill all the to-go containers with cranberries the night before. Staci Miller was willing to head up the kitchen. Toots Bjerklie was ready to clean everything up in the kitchen -- and the rest is history. And this year, for the first time in three go-rounds, we didn't run out of food! In fact, we were a little long on turkey, gravy and pie. But believe me, we found eager takers – and raised a little more for our West River Ambulance Service!

We still have longtime WRHS Auxiliary members like Eva Knutson, Kaye McIntyre, Cindy Olson, Barb Luger, DeNae Henderson, Leah Gunther-Marty and Dana Andress taking care of chores in the pie room and wherever else needed. And there are other former WRHS Auxiliary members still baking pies for this event! Plus we've added new faces and terrific (some young) workers like Molly Wolf, Beth Erickson, Cindy Vik, Micky Rafferty, Sloan Adkins, Jodi Anderson, Dr. Mark Kristy, Stacie Janke, Robert Knutson and Liz Hallen – taking care of preparations in the pie room, the delivery meal building, the kitchen, doing dishes, clearing tables and cleaning up the Church! Plus, we can't forget about this year's turkey cutting crews of Ron and Brenda Dragoo, Sheri Uecker, Barb West, Kaye McIntyre, Karla Larson, Dr. John Kludt, Tenille Guthrie, Erin Timm, Christi Schmitz, Jackie Muggerud, Doris Hoke, Camille Emelo and Jeb & Heather Boxrud. In fact, Wednesday's crew set the all-time record -- cutting up a dozen, 21-pound turkeys in only 47 minutes! We are grateful.

And we had a terrific showing from our Board of Director members, who served the food, and included: Steve Hedstrom, Bonnie Smith, Steve McFarland, Dave Erickson, Leonard Bjerklie, Seth Skogen, Laurie WIckstrom and Lane Miller. Plus, Lane's wife, Kristi Miller jumped in to help serve the tasty meal; as did Leann Fitch, our new Hettinger Chamber of Commerce Director and of course, our WRHS CEO with one year under her belt, Alyson Kornele. We are grateful.

Our 8 delivery teams of 16 were totally amazing this go round! Headed up by longtime drivers Howard Nelson and Kory VanWyk, plus second year drivers Tenille Guthrie, Kim Erickson and Charlie Ahmann – and the newbie adult drivers, Dave Muggerud and Ben & Maureen Kautzman. We paired each of these adults with a Hettinger High School Honor Society student – Olivia DeFoe, Blake Larson, Olivia Havelka, Gabby Dix, Julia Dalley, Sarah Holzkamm, Sophie Kennedy and Avery Tuhy. The youth were added not only for their youthful hustle to run the to-go meals out of the church and into area businesses and homes, but also to use their smart phones to direct the adults where to go – and lastly, receiving the gifts (if they weren't already prepaid, from the public for their meals – and eventually for our West River Ambulance Service. It worked out slick as can be – with most every meal delivered a little early and as warm as possible to everyone's doorstep. We are grateful.

Thank you to our Laboratory Department (Bekki Holzkamm, Manette Obrigewitch, Camille Lucero, Kathrine Abelita, and Michelle Abonado), Cindy (Rick) Olson and Barb West for decorating the church. It was amazing as always! And thank you to the Hettinger Lutheran Church for allowing us to host our event at your place. Who else has 22 direct line plug ins for roasters, crockpots and coffee? Your kitchen is the most organized in the world, with name tags on every cabinet! Plus, allowing us to store our roasters and delivery materials there. Needless to say, we are grateful.

Thank you to Kennedy's Fresh Foods for cooking all of the turkeys, ordering all of the food and allowing us to utilize your terrific facilities for cutting turkeys and storing in your coolers. There is now way we could possibly hold this event without you. Thanks also to KNDC Radio, the Adams County Record and Eido Printing for allowing us to visit on TTO about the event, print articles and run advertising about the luncheon. Thank you to Drolc Electric for donating their time to add single line outlets to power all of the roasters at the Church (we did not blow a fuse this go round!). We are grateful.

Lastly, THANK YOU area believers. We, at West River Health Services Foundation, West River Health Services and Western Horizons Living Centers are thankful for your gifts. Whether you gave $5 or $400 for your meal, ate it here, took it to go or had it delivered -- we are grateful for all gifts. Our West River Ambulance Service will receive about $8,000 net from this event and we will also be making a $500 gift toward the Adams County Food Pantry. Amazing.

Our WRHS Foundation is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization, led by a volunteer Board of Directors selected from our service area communities. Our mission is to provide fundraising and development services for WRHS and WHLC as they provide comprehensive health and wellness services for the citizens and visitors to our region. Because of your loyal donor gifts, we continue to make improvements to West River Health Services and Western Horizons Living Centers. After all, we need top-quality healthcare "close to home." Onward! Ted Uecker, WRHS Foundation