With Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner, the Community Benefit Committee and the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office are teaming up again to make the holidays easier for local residents in need.
Lt. Rhonda Sanders, who heads the Community Benefit Committee, said this year the nonprofit is shooting to collect 2,000 frozen turkeys to be distributed to families in need the weekend before Thanksgiving.
“We still need 1,000 turkeys,” Sanders said. “So we’re really encouraging people to help us reach our goal this week.”
Frozen turkeys can be dropped off at the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office, 527 South Martin Luther King Drive, until Nov. 21, according to a flier Sanders sent to The Dispatch.
The turkeys will then be distributed to those in need at 10 a.m. Nov. 23 at the BankFirst Yards Sportsplex, 1336 N. Frontage Road. Sanders said the only requirement to pick up a turkey is to have a Lowndes County ID, though only one turkey will be given per family.
Sanders said the nonprofit and LCSO work together on the annual turkey drive, which allows the law enforcement agency to thank the community for helping officers do their jobs year-round.
Sheriff Eddie Hawkins said the sheriff’s office participates as the drop-off location for the turkeys, but also gets Lowndes County Adult Detention Center trustees involved in passing them out.
“We utilize a lot of the trustees to help distribute the turkeys,” Hawkins said. “And it’s helping with them learning to give back to the community and learning to do something productive with their lives. It’s just a way to help show them that there’s more to life than committing crimes and going to jail.”
CBC member Julie Parker said the turkey drive is a continuation of the committee’s work with the late Annie Berry, and her effort to provide a Thanksgiving meal to those in need on the day. But with the COVID-19 pandemic and Berry’s passing a few years ago, the committee started passing out frozen turkeys the weekend before the holiday instead.
“Since we don’t have the capacity to cook all the food and do that, we know that just having food, having the turkey really does help many families out in ways that go beyond what we could do if we prepared a meal,” Parker said. “We feel like it’s an important component of the holiday season for citizens of the Lowndes County area to know that they’re cared about, and we hope that they can use the turkey in ways that will not only feed their family but bring their family together.”
Christmas toy drive and shopping spree
While turkeys continue to roll in for Thanksgiving, CBC and LCSO have also started collecting toys and other donations for the Christmas season, Sanders said.
Sanders said the committee is holding a toy drive, benefiting the foster children and children of trustees in Lowndes County. Donors are encouraged to drop off new toys or gift cards for children ages 1-18 at the sheriff’s office. All toys are due by Dec. 13.
Parker said the CBC’s annual gala and haunted house both help to raise money to purchase toys for foster children and the children of trustees in Lowndes County. But even with those year-round fundraising efforts, the nonprofit is still asking for more toy donations, to ensure all 200 foster children that live in the county can pick out a few Christmas presents this year.
Trustees are also given the opportunity to pick out toys for their children and have a Christmas meal together, Parker said, as a way to thank them for the work they do year-round, and to allow them to build connections with their children while they are incarcerated.
“We’ve seen so many beautiful things happen during that time, when the trustees’ families come to have that Christmas meal with them, and they’re able to share Christmas with their children,” Parker said.
Along with the toy drive, Sanders said the CBC is also collecting monetary donations to sponsor children for the “Shop with the Sheriff” program, where 50 children in need attending schools in Lowndes County and Columbus are selected by their schools for a $100 shopping spree at Walmart with the sheriff.
“Some kids choose to do toys or a gift card, but some kids, we have and they even buy food… and hygiene products,” Sanders said.
“Whatever the child desires within that $100. And sometimes, we can go over $100, it just depends on how we fundraise.”
CBC is accepting donations for Shop with the Sheriff through CashApp and Paypal. For more information, reach out to Rhonda Sanders at (662) 549-5909.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 47 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
