{"id":48889,"date":"2018-04-11T10:03:44","date_gmt":"2018-04-11T14:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=48889"},"modified":"2018-04-11T10:03:44","modified_gmt":"2018-04-11T14:03:44","slug":"turkey-bidding-for-jdrf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=48889","title":{"rendered":"Turkey Bidding For JDRF"},"content":{"rendered":"

Making life better for people with diabetes may just be for the birds. Bear with us here: A Wisconsin family with a history of raising prize turkeys has found away to combine that hobby with funding diabetes programs, from JDRF<\/a> to camps for kids with diabetes<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When their daughter Gracie was diagnosed with Type 1 at six years old back in 2010, the Steinmeyer family experienced the usual shock, said mom Jennifer. At first they focused on learning the ropes of day-to-day life with diabetes. But as time went on, they wanted to do more, and began doing JDRF Walks. Raising funds wasn\u2019t easy, until they realized the answer was right out in their backyard pen: their prize turkeys that sell each year at the county fair.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband Troy grew up raising turkeys, so we do now,\u201d said Jennifer. \u201cIn 2015 he said, \u2018hey: let\u2019s try winning the grand champion turkey and then sell it for our walk team.’\u201d<\/p>\n

They set at it, ordering three-day-old chicks from a hatchery and then nursing them in their basement under heat lamps. \u201cTurkey are notoriously stupid,\u201d said Jennifer. \u201cYou have to dip their beaks in water to show them that it is there.\u201d They don\u2019t all survive: of 15 to 20 chicks, they ended up with eight to grow.<\/p>\n

And grow they did, one growing to be about 26 pounds. They raise White Broad Breasted Turkeys, a popular and hearty breed.<\/p>\n

At the show \u2013 a local annual fair, judges look at the turkey\u2019s size and condition of their feathers (and each turkey has a cleansing bath before. \u201cYeah, it\u2019s really fun to try to bath a turkey,\u201d said Jennifer, \u201cbut it was for the sake of a cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family won \u2013 and that first year, their overall winner brought in $850 from a bidder who had a connection: a friend of theirs from high school who lost his dad to diabetes and now had a nephew newly diagnosed. The second place turkey, also raised by their family, brought in $650. Before they knew it, everyone with a bird of some kind up for auction was offering their funds to the cause.<\/p>\n

This past year, the idea really caught on and the fair, once a struggling one, drew a huge crowd, many there to see just how much the turkeys would bring in. The total? More than $4,000, which the family donated to the Cammie Johnson Memorial Fund, a fund named for a young woman who lost her battle to diabetes years back, and that sends kids with diabetes to camps such as the Chris Dudley Basketball Camp and helps with the cost of medical supplies for struggling local families.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was amazing,\u201d said Jennifer. \u201cOne chicken someone brought and donated was purchased and donated back 12 times, for a total of $1,500 from one chicken. Coincidentally, Jennifer was picking up Gracie from the Chris Dudley camp when it all went down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got off the plane and my phone just lit up,\u201d she said of the news of raising so much. \u201cI burst into tears.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gracie\u2019s reaction? \u201cShe\u2019s a teen so you never really know, but I think she\u2019s thinks it is pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Troy, who was there showing the turkeys and witnessing the bidding, said \u201cI still get chills when I talk about it. The support that you feel from your community when something like this happens is just incredible. You know, in the news you hear about so many bad things happening. Well: this is just all good. I never would have thought my family teaching me to raise turkeys would help my child and all people with diabetes one day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the turkey bidding has become legendary, with folks coming to see how much people pony up, and the excitement around it. That, Jennifer said, has boosted the success of the entire fair, which had been floundering for a time.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone in town comes now to see what the turkey is going to bring in. It used to be the steer or the pig. Now, in our town, it\u2019s the turkey.\u201d<\/p>\n

All four of the family children help with the raising of the turkeys, competing with each other to raise the champion. When the time comes for the turkey to leave, are they ever sad? \u201cNo,\u201d said Jennifer. \u201cTurkeys are not very cuddly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family plans on continuing the tradition. \u201cI don’t think we can not do it now,\u201d said Jennifer.\u201d But it\u2019s fun. It\u2019s a fun and unique way for a small town to help a family and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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